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Copyright, 1884, by
A. E. GOODSPEED.
C\^^v. t^i-^-^^A,
TO
Mrs. GARFIELD
AND HER CHILDREN
THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY
The Author.
PREFACE,
TTN writing a biography of one who has for so many years
-^ held a prominent position before the public, the task of
the author has been to condense the wealth of material at his
command. For over a quarter of a century Mr. Blaine has
taken an active part in politics, and this period comprises the
most important years through which the Republic has passed.
The anxieties of the war, the difficulties of reconstruction, the
perplexing questions of finance and public economy, have all
occupied his attention. For his views on all these capital
points, and countless others which came up in this eventful
epoch in the nation's life, we have had recourse to the authori-
tative record of his opinions. The Congressional Becord, from
which we give copious extracts, omitting, wherever possible,
anything that seemed of merely transitory interest, but studi-
ously preserving those expressions of opinion which have a
bearing on the questions which agitate the public mind to-
day. This part of our book will, we trust, be valuable as a
collection of political maxims by an experienced statesman on
the weightiest topics, as well as of speeches which are always
clear and forcible, and rise often to the highest oratorical ex-
cellence. Regarding Mr. Blaine's public life, we have exten-
FBEFACE. ;
uated naught, and set down naught in malice ; our object has
been to place before our readers the truth, and leave them to
draw their own conclusions.
With respect to Mr. Blaine's private life, the publishers
have had the invaluable assistance of Mr. Orville D. Baker, of
Augusta, Maine, who enjoys an intimate acquaintance with
Mr. Blaine, and has had the use of his memoranda and papers.
Many of his other neighbors in Augusta, and hosts of friends
from all sections of the country, have been prompt to com-
municate any information in their possession. To these kind
friends, and especially to Mr. Baker, our sincere thanks are
due, and are herewith respectfully tendered. Their assistance
has enabled us to shed a new light on the early life and strug-
gles of the present Republican candidate for the Presidency.
We must ask indulgence from our readers for any imperfec-
tions they may discern. We have not sought for literary
excellence, but endeavored to give "the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER L
ANCESTEY, BIRTH, AlfD EARLY LIFE.
PAGE
The first of tbe Blaines in America. — Settling in Western Pennsylvania.
• — Birth of the fifth lineal descendant. — His father a man of wealth
and culture, but of extravagant habits. — Beauty and genius of his
mother. — Colonel Ephraim Blaine, Purveyor-General of the Army
of Pennsylvania. — Providing food for starving soldiers. — West
Brownsville. — Mr. Blaine's reminiscences. — Boyhood. — Early educa-
tion and training. — Literary advantages at home. — Hon. Thomas
Ewing. — Practical political training, 13
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER.
In Washington College. — Making his mark.— Opinions of classmates.—
Favorite professor. — Teaching in Blue Licks Military Institute, Ky.
— Engagement and marriage. — Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind.
—Early historical work 28
CHAPTER III.
IN THE editor's chair.
Aptitute for newspaper work. — ^Removal to Augusta. — Partnership \(dth
Joseph Baker. — " Kennebec Journal," — The break-up of the Whig
party. — The " Portland Advertiser." — The Fugitive-slave law. — Fre-
mont nominated. — The Eepublican party. — Blaine's editorial career.
— His articles on the Anti-slavery question. — The new party. — W. H.
Seward. — The Dred Scott decision. — Judge Davis. — Blaine's opposi*
tioa to his removal 46
CHAPTER IV.
BLAINE IN" THE STATE LEGISLATUEE.
Blaine a Delegate to the Convention. — His difiadence before the Ratifi-
cation Meeting. — His brilliant success. — ^His speech on the acquisition
of Cuba. — '• No other nation must have it." — The Chicago Conven-
tion of 1860. — Blaine's description of Douglas and Lincoln. — Blaine
as delegate. — Speech in favor of the administration of Lincoln. —
"The one man power." — Patriotic sentiment. — Nominated for the
United States Congress, 1862 60
10 ^ CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
BLAINE'S FIEST TEEM IN CONGEESS.
The first term In Congress. — His address to tte Convention. — ^His con-
temporaries. — Service on Committees. — His support of Lincoln. —
Tilts with S. S. Cox.— Free Trade.— Protected States.— Blaine of
Maine. — Negro troops. — Their bravery.— Ought they to be retained?
— ^Animated debate with S. S. Cox 79
CHAPTER VI.
BLAIITE'S second teem in CONGEESS.
His letter of acceptance : " We must preserve the Union." — Service on
Committees. — Debate with Conkling. — The struggle for supremacy.
— Reimbursement of the war expenses of the loyal States. — Export
duty vs. Excise. — Eloquent picture of the country's future. — ^Mainte-
nance of the National credit 90
CHAPTER VII.
BLAINE'S THIED TEEM IN CONGEESS.
The Currency Question.— The honest dollar.— Payment of debts in gold.
— ^Reply to General Butler. — The Five-twenty bond. — Legal Tenders.
— Blaine's energy.— Skirmish with Eoscoe Conkling. — Basis of repre-
sentation.— Suffrage on population. — Our ships and free trade. — The
Blaine amendment. — Blaine's popularity. — In Committee and in the
House. — Democratic testimony 108
CHAPTER Vin.
BLAINE AS SPEAE:EE.
His three terms. — His inaugural address. — ^His valedictories. — ^His par-
ticipation in debate. — ^Reply to General Butler's charges. — The Credit
Mobilier scandal 119
CHAPTER IX.
BLAINE AS LEADEE OF THE PAETY.
The Democratic tidal wave. — His courage and skill. — ^Demands, for
Blaine as President. — The Currency Questioa — Blaine's views on
Finance. — The Amnesty Bill. — Republican clemency. — Case of Jef-
ferson Davis. — Andersonville. — Rejection of the bill. — Irredeemable
currency. — Evils of the system. — Greenbackers. — Attacks on Blaine's
integrity.— Union Pacific Railroad Company.— The Investigating
Committee.— The Mulligan Letters. —Blaine sunstruck.— Popular
sympathy. 1 37
CONTENTS. 11
CHAPTER X.
BLAINE IN THE SENATE,
PAGE
The Cincinnati Convention, 1876.— The candidates.— Blaine most [pop-
ular.— Ingersoll's speech. — Hayes elected. — Blaine's coolness on
receipt of the news. — His [telegram to Hayes. — Blaine on the stump.
— Olio campaign. — Blaine's memory. — Speech at the Cooper Union.
—Blaine as Senator. — His farewell letter.— His opposition to Hayes'
policy.— Silver Dollar Bill.— The Navy.— The tariff laws.— Outrages
at the polls. — The riders on appropriation bUls. — Chinese immi-
gration.—Blame's speech. — His letter to Lloyd Garrison.— The State
of Maine • 168
CHAPTER XI.
SEOKETARY OF STATE.
Mr. Blaine and Mr. Garfield meet. — Washington Secretaryship tendered
and accepted. — Short term of oflBce. — The Monroe Doctrine revived. —
The Neutrality question. — The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. — Mr. Blaine's
argument for its abrogation. — Two principal objects of his Foreign
Policy. — Intervention in South America. — Instructions to General
Hurlbut. — Special envoys. — Their recall and the survival of the
Foreign Policy,— The Peace Congress. — The Stalwart Half-Breed
quarrel.— Assassination of Garfield. — Mr. Blaine's Memorial Ora«
tioQ.^" Twenty Years of Congress.". .....*..«. 221
CHAPTER XII.
THE NOMINATION.
Before the Convention. — ^The Blaine movement not a hot-house growth.—
Mr. Blaine's dignified attitude. — The Convention. — Organization.—-
Attempted combination. — The obstinate Independents. — Judge
West's nominating speech, — The supreme moment. — Receiving the
news. — Congratulations. — Formal announcement to Mr. Blaine.—
The Platform 259
CHAPTER Xm.
THE LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE.
The Independent Republicans. — Blaine's views. — His clear statements.—
The Tariff question. — Prosperity of the country, — Our foreign com-
merce,— Agriculture and the Tariff. — Effect on the mechanic and
laborer. — Our foreign policy, — The Southern States. — The civil
service. — The Mormon question. — The currency. — The public lands.—
Our shipping interests,— Sacredness of the ballot 276
12 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
AT HOME AND AMONG HIS FRIENDS.
PAGE
Home life a test of character. — Mr. Blaine the friend and adviser of
his children. — The first home of Mr. Blaine's in Augusta. — Ee-
spected and beloved by his employees and townsmen. — Teacher in a
Mission Sunday-schooL — Religious views. — His family. — Homes in
Washington and Augusta. — A Mend's reasons for supporting Mr.
Blaine 294
CHAPJEE XV.
PERSONAL TRAITS.
Outward appearance, — Not a perfect man. — Human weakness. — ^Exag-
gerated praise and blame. — Private character. — Opinion not evi-
dence.— Knowledge of the ignorant. — Qualities which Mr. Blaine
possesses in common with all successful men. — ^His remarkable
memory. — Story of a war correspondent. — Not eccentric. — Frankness
and sincerity. — Four characteristics. — Magnetism. — Sympathy with
public opinion, — ^Executive ability. — Americanism. — ^Finsd estimate. 301
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAOE
Hon. James Gt. Blaine (Steel) Frontispiece.
Eon. James Gt. Blaine delivering the Garfield Memorial Address.
Frontispiece to text.
Hon. James G. Blaine's Birthplace 21
"Washington College as it appeared in 1847, when Mr. Blaine Grad-
uated 31
Kesidence of Hon. James G. Blaine, Augusta, Maine 41
Blaine at Home with his Family 51
The State House at Augusta, Me 61
Soman Catholic Church at Brownsville, Pa., and the Cemetery where
I Blaine's Parents are Buried 71
The Arena of Hon. James G. Blaine's Struggles and Triumphs for
Twenty Tears 81
Hon. James G. Blaine's Residence in Washington, D, C 91
During Blaine's Twenty Tears in Congress 101
Blaine and other Members of the Cabinet Viewing Garfield's Remains. Ill
Hon. J. G. Blaine (Steel) when he was Spfeaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives 121
The Chicago Convention 131
Exposition Building at Chicago, where the Cott-^ention was held 141
Maggie Blaine at the Telephone, receiving the News of her Father's
Nomination for President ..<..< .a 151
BIOGBAPHT
OF
HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND EARLY LIFE.
The first of the Blaines in America. — Settling in Western Pennsylvania,—
Birth of the fifth lineal descendant. — His father a man of wealth and
culture, but of extravagant habits. — Beauty and genius of his mother. —
Colonel Ephraim Blaine, Purveyor-General of the Army of Pennsylvania.
— Providing food for starving soldiers. — West Brownsville. — Mr. Blaine's
reminiscences. — Boyhood. — Early education and training, — Literary ad-
vantages at home, — Hon. Thomas Ewing, — Practical political training,
FIFTY-FOUR years before the Declaration of Independ-
ence, an adventurous Scotchman brought the name of
Blaine into Western Pennsylvania, He brought also what
made the name worthy, his Scotch Presbyterianism — which,
if it was as hard as the nether mill-stone, was also as firm and
enduring — and something of the thriftiness and perseverance
of his native thistle. Fifty-four years after the Declaration
of Independence there came into the world the fifth lineal
descendant of the first settler, who, in his fifty-fourth year,
has received the nomination of the dominant party for the
highest office in the Union.
The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, from whom
he derives his Christian name, was James Blaine, a man of
leisure, who had traveled extensively in Europe, and had the
responsible duty of bringing from France to this country im-
portant diplomatic despatches during the early days of the
nation. He left seven children, the eldest of whom, Ephraim,
14 BIOGEAPHf OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINB.
was a man of brilliant talents. To this Ephraim and to Maria
Gillespie his wife, was born on the last day of December, 1830,
at West Brownsville, Washington County, Pennsylvania, a son
who bears the name of James Gillespie Blaine. The blood was
good on both sides — the best in the Monongahela Valley —
Scotch-Irish, which for half a century had flowed from loyal
American hearts. Ephraim Blaine inherited all the blessings
that went with the name with the thriftiness left out. He was a
fine-grained, high-spirited gentleman, with the cultivation and
polish of an educated man of the world. He had, moreover,
what seems to have been a family trait — a sort of masterly
quality, which made him a leader in society and in politics.
His popularity was attested by his election in a Democratic
county to a high judicial office, though he was himself an
ardent Whig. But money slipped through his fingers as easily
and rapidly, and apparently with as little concern to himself, as
sand slips through the fingers of children. His fortune was
originally considerable, and with careful management might
have made him a millionaire. One of his real estate transac-
tions is of historical interest. In 1825 he sold to the Econo-
mites, for a consideration of $25,000, the tract of land upon
which the city of Pittsburgh is built. Eight royally did this
gay spendthrift spend his own and his wife's property. His
extravagant habits, and especially his fine tandem team — a
novelty at that time in those parts — led Mr. Neal Gillespie to
speak of him as " my gig and tandem son-in-law." When he
came to die, so the story goes, he had not enough left to pay
the cost of his burial. When this fact was made known to his
distinguished son in later years, he paid as a debt of honor the
money which his father's friends had contributed to give him
a decent burial. Maria Gillespie, by common consent of all
who knew her, was a woman of rare beauty and remarkable
genius. She belonged to a family who were as ardent Catho-
ANCESTRY, SiRTS, AND EARLt LIFE. 15
lies as the Blaines were stalwart Presbyterians, and she re-
mained to the last a faithful worshiper in the church of her
fathers, and led a consistent Christian life. Her children were
all baptized in the Catholic Church, and after the departure
from home of her famous son, her husband also became an
occasional attendant at the same church. Her great natural
talents were multiplied and sharpened by use. Her tact and
prudence were called into frequent requisition in the manage-
ment of temporal affairs, for which her husband had neither
taste nor ability, and there was thus developed in her a spirit
of independence and an equipoise of character not common
among women. She was proud but courteous in her bearing,
winning all by the sweetness and strength of her character,
commanding all by the imperiousness of her will, which
flashed its behests in the lightnings of her piercing eye. The
gift of genius came to Mr. Blaine from his mother. She gave
her life not for him, but better than that — she gave it to him,
and her beneficent love, her watchful care, her wise training
are lasting benedictions upon the life she gave. Like so many
great men before him — like the Gracchi — like Napoleon, Mr.
Blaine may lay all his chaplets down on his mother's grave,
and bowing there in silence, whisper to the spirit of the dead
that may hover near, " Thou didst deliver unto me five talents ;
lo ! I have gained other five talents."
The most distinguished member of the Blaine family before
the present generation was Colonel Ephraim Blaine, who was
closely associated with Washington in many trying scenes of
the Kevolution. As Purveyor-Greneral of the Army of Penn-
sylvania, it was his duty to furnish food and clothing for the
troops. Often — yes, always — it was a difficult duty, but it
was never undone while hope and means could either be found
or made. His services on many occasions endeared him to the
half-fed, half-clothed, but whole-hearted men who fought the
16 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
battles for independence. Many a weary and foot-sore patriot
who followed Washington through the AUeghanies, fearing
less the armies of England than the terrible gnawing of hun-
ger within, had reason in hours of direst distress to bless the
name of Ephraim Blaine. " For God's sake send us supplies ;
we are out of bread," wrote General Washington to Colonel
Blaine. " Send me money to meet my debts/' came back
the echo. The money did not come, but the food did, and
Mr. Blaine paid for it out of his own pocket, like the true
devoted patriot that he was.
" In this great field of patriotic duty," writes a friend from
Pa., "Colonel Blaine won a splendid reputation. Through
himself and immediate friends he was able, at different times,
when the Continental treasury was empty, to advance large
supplies of money toward purchasing supplies for the army ;
and during the terrible winter at Valley Forge, Washington
attributed the preservation of his troops from absolute
starvation to the heroic and self-sacrificing efibrts of Colonel
Blaine. The high esteem with which Colonel Blaine was held
by Washington and his great patriotic leaders in the Eevolu-
tion was attested by numerous letters from them, official and
unofficial, still in the possession of Colonel Blaine's descend-
ants in this State. It is yet one of the pleasing local traditions
of Carlisle that in 1793, when the Whisky Insurrection arose
in the western counties. President Washington, accompanied
by his Secretaries of the Treasury and War Departments,
Hamilton and Knox, on their way to the scene of the trouble,
halted for many days at Middlesex as the guests of Colonel
Blaine, and while there heard of the dispersion of the insur-
gents and returned to Philadelphia. Their visit was the
occasion of the most lavish hospitality and old-fashioned
merry-making, and was long remembered with pleasure by the
generation of Carlisle residents who have just passed away."
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND EARLY LIFE. 17
The birthplace of a great man is always invested with
peculiar interest ; by a sort of instinct we go back to the place
where the cradle was rocked to ask the secret of the man-
hood's strength and fame. We seek to know what were the
surroundings of his earlier years ; what influences of cloud
and sky, of field and of air, of mountain or valley or level
l)lain did their unconscious part in the molding of character
and in giving to the genius of the boy that " form and pres-
sure" which in the man commanded the admiration of his
fellows.
West Brownsville is a little, old-fashioned town in the
southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. The lofty Alleghanies
rise majestically above it, mighty, unchanging sentinels of
rock, that, stern and unyielding in their strength, stand
serene in the midst of every storm, wanting only a human
tongue to speak to men of fidelity, of power, and of security
beyond the reach of harm, while the broad, deep Alleghany
flows beside it, carrying the message of the mountains to the
Gulf.
A playmate tells a story of Mr. Blaine's boyhood which
shows what thoughts often occupied his mind amid these
scenes of grandeur and beauty. They had ascended Krepps'
Knob, and while looking up the winding river and away into
Virginia, James said : " That's the end of the world and I'm
going there some day."
The old Gillespie homestead on Indian Hill, which Mr.
Blaine's father occupied after his marriage, is a two-story
building of irregular shape, resembling in its ground plan the
letter W. A large portico in front commands a beautiful
view of the Monongahela, and at the rear, twenty miles away,
rise the peaks of the Alleghanies.
What Pittsburgh is to-day Brownsville hoped to have
been, and in the days when the National Road was the great
18 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
thoroughfare westward, the smile of destiny seemed propheti-
cally to rest upon this busy town. The boats she made sailed
in almost all the waterways of the States, and were everywhere
sought as the best ; but with the introduction of railroads the
glory of Brownsville departed, and Pittsburgh became the
great commercial centre of the section.
Not many years ago Mr. Blaine, already in the full tide of
his fame, visited his birthplace and roamed over the old house
from roof to cellar, fondly lingering in the room where he first
saw the light, and living over again in thought and fancy
those days when time for him marched with a laggard step,
when dreams of future greatness lightened and brightened the
tasks and the trials of boyhood life.
A letter, written upon the occasion of the Washington
County Centennial, in September, 1881, reveals his deep
attachment for the place of his birth, and his loyal interest
and pride in its history.
" Washington, D. C, Sept. 5, 1881.
"John D. McKennan :
^^ Dear Sir, — I had anticipated great pleasure in being
present at the centennial celebration of the erection of Wash-
ington County, but the national sorrow which shadows every
household detains me here.
" I shall perhaps never again have the opportunity of seeing
so many of the friends of my youth, and so many of my blood
and kindred, and you may well conceive my disappointment
is great.
" The strong attachment which I feel for the county, the
pride which I cherish in its traditions, and the high estimate
which I have always placed on the character of its people,
increase with years and reflection. The pioneers were strong-
hearted. God-fearing, resolute men, wholly, or almost wholly,
of Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent. They were men whoj
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND EARLY LIFE. 19
according to an inherited maxim, never turned their backs on
a friend or an enemy.
" For twenty years, dating from the middle period of the
Kevolution, the settlers were composed very largely of men
who had themselves served in the Continental army, many of
them as officers, and they imparted an intense patriotism to
the public sentiment.
" It may be among the illusions of memory, but I think I
have nowhere else seen the Fourth of July and Washington's
Birthday celebrated with such zeal and interest as in the
gatherings I there attended. I recall a great meeting of the
people on the Fourth of July, 1840, on the border of the
county, in Brownsville, at which a considerable part of the
procession was composed of vehicles filled with Eevolutionary
soldiers. I was but ten years old, and may possibly mistake,
but I think there were more than two hundred of the grand
old heroes. The modern cant criticism which we sometimes
hear about Washington not being, after all, a very great man,
would have been dangerous talk on that day and in that
" These pioneers placed a high value on education, and
while they were still on the frontier struggling with its priva-
tions they established two excellent colleges, long since pros-
perously united in one. It would be impossible to overstate
the beneficent and wide-spread influence which Washington
and Jefferson Colleges have exerted on the civilization of that
great country which lies between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi Eiver. Their graduates have been prominent in
the pulpit, at the bar, on the bench, and in the high stations
of public life. During my service of eighteen years in
Congress, I met a larger number of the alumni of Washing-
ton and Jefferson than of any other single college in the Union.
" I make this statement from memory, but I feel assured
20 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
that a close examination of the rolls of the two Houses from
1863 to 1881, would fully establish its correctness. Not only
were the two colleges founded and well sustained, but the entire
educational system of the county, long before the school tax
and public schools, was comprehensive and thorough. I re-
member that in my own boyhood there were ten or eleven
academies or select schools in the county, where lads could be
fitted for college.
" In nearly every instance the Presbyterian pastor was the
principal teacher. Many who will be present at your Centen-
nial will recall the succession of well-drilled students, who
came, for so many years, from the tuition of Dr. McCluskey,
at West Alexander, from Kev, John Stockton, at Cross Creek,
from Rev. John Eagleson, of Buffalo, and from others of like
worth and reputation.
" It was inevitable that a county thus peopled should grow
in strength, wisdom and wealth. Its sixty thousand inhabit-
ants are favored far beyond the average lot of man. They are
blest with a fertile soil and with a health-giving climate,
which belongs to the charmed latitude of the fortieth parallel,
the middle of the wheat and com belt of the continent. Be-
yond this they enjoy the happy and ennobling influences of
scenery as grand and as beautiful as that which lures tourists
thousands of miles beyond the sea. I have, myself, visited
many of the celebrated spots in Europe and in America, and
I have nowhere witnessed a more attractive sight than was
familiar to my eyes, in boyhood, from the old Indian Hill Farm,
where I was born, and where my great-grandfather, the elder
Neal Gillespie, settled before the outbreak of the Revolution.
" The majestic sweep of the Monongahela through the foot
of the Alleghanies, with a chain of mountains, but twenty
miles distant, in full view, gave an impression of beauty and
sublimity which can never be effaced.
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND EARLY LIFE. 23
" I talk thus familiarly of localities and of childhood in-
cidents because your assemblage, though composed of thousands,
will, in effect, be a family reunion, where the only thing in
order will be tradition and recollections, and personal history.
Identified as I have been, for twenty-eight years, with a great
and noble people in another section of the Union, I have never
lost any of my attachments for my native county and my
native State. The two feelings no more conflict than does a
man's love for his wife and his love for his mother. Wherever
I may be in life, or whatever my fortune, the County of Wash-
ington, as it anciently was, taking in all the State south and
west of the Monongahela, will be sacred in my memory. I
shall always recall with pride that my ancestry and kindred
were, and are, not inconspicuously connected with its history,
and that on either side of the beautiful river, in Protestant
and Catholic cemeteries, five generations of my own blood
sleep in honored graves. Very sincerely yours,
" James G. Blaine."
In the little Catholic burying-ground of Brownsville, close
to the church is a plain granite monument, erected by Mr.
Blaine, over the graves of his father and mother ; the pedestal
bears this inscription :
EPHEAIM LYON BLAINE,
Born Feb. 28, 1796.
Died June 38, 1850.
MAKIA GILLESPIE,
WIFE OF
EPHEAIM LYON BLAINE,
Born May 22, 1801.
Died May 5, 1871.
Requiescant in Pace.
Below this in large letters is the word " Blaine."
24 BIOGKAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Parents who added to abundant means a fine literary cul-
ture, carefully provided for the education of Mr, Blaine, and
spared him the privations and hardships of an early and prema-
ture struggle with the world in hand-to-hand encounter. Like
other boys, he was awkward and diffident, full of boyish mis-
chief, and presumably enjoying his fair share of abuse as the
loyal disciple of Old Nick. He worked on the farm, pulled
weeds, brought in wood, and did all the delightful things that
fall to the lot of a boy. One of his duties was to carry
butter and eggs to market, and it was noticed that, no matter
how numerous or complicated his little trades might be, he
always came out right in his reckoning ; so that it be-
came a common saying, among the marketmen, that young
Blaine would surely be a rich man. He had also an unusually
keen discrimination, even for a boy, in selecting the occasions
upon which he could do the most mischief and have the most
fiendish delight with least risk to himself.
One day, an unwary Welshman who, in some unguarded
moment had ofiended the boy, was peacefully occupied in dig-
ging a well. Master James happening that way, and taking
in at a glance the bearings of the situation, immediately treated
the well-digger to a shower of stones and dirt. The complaint
of the irate Welshman contained, among other indictments,
one to the effect that the boy had too much spurt (spirit).
At five years of age, James began to go to school. He started
with the United States spelling book and Robinson Crusoe.
His first two teachers were Miss Mary Ann Graves, now Mrs.
Johnson, and Mrs. Matilda Dorsey.
He began very early to develop a great fondness for books.
He would devour them with as much zest as other children do
candy. Before he was eight years old he had read Scott's Life
of Napoleon, and at nine he had gone through Plutarch's Lives,
repeating the stories as he went along, to his grandfather Gil-
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND EARLY LIFE. 25
lespie. His reading was carefully directed, and he thus early
acquired a taste for good books, especially for histories. His
father was a man well informed on all the topics of the day,
and maintained to the last an active interest in the political
movements of the country. The best magazines and newspapers
were always on his library table, and often prominent men
from various parts of the country passing to and fro on the
National road, brought to his pleasant home the chami of
their presence and the freshest news from the great centres of
political life. In those days the stories of the Revolution were
learned not from the pages of books, where they had been
chilled into print, but as they fell from the lips of those who
had felt the prick of British bayonets, who had seen the smoke
of battle, and heard the roar of musketry and cannon on many
hard contested fields. There was in them a reality that stirred
the heart of youth, and kept the fires of patriotism ever burn-
ing in those who did not remember the war.
In such an atmosphere Mr. Blaine grew up. Is it any
wonder then that he is intensely American in all his opinions.
A man who heard the first echo of the revolutionary guns, and
who knew the horrors and the cost of the civil war, if there
were a drop of patriotic blood in his veins, could not but feel
and show in all he said and did a whole-souled loyalty to the
doubly-consecrated Union.
His education thus began well. He was the best speller in
school. " That boy of Mr. Blaine's " could " spell down " a
whole row.
His memory was phenomenal. Names, dates, incidents,
stories of battles, facts of all kinds, once in his head, found no
loop-hole to get out. Besides his two lady teachers, there
were four men who at different times acted as his instructors
— Albert G. Booth, Solomon Phillips, and Campbell Beall and
Joshua y. Gibbons, Mr. Gibbons, who in his personal appear-
26 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
ance nearly resembled Abraham Lincoln, once visited Mr.
Blaine at Washington, and occupied a seat of honor by the
Speaker's chair.
In 1841, James, then a lad of eleven years, was sent to live
for a year at the home of Hon. Thomas Ewing, at Lancaster,
Ohio. There, together with his cousin, afterwards General
Thomas Ewing, he was under the instruction of William Lyons,
an Englishman, and uncle of Lord Lyons, who was the British
Minister to this country during the late war. Mr. Ewing was
then Secretary of the Treasury. The " Log Cabin and Hard
Cider " campaign had resulted in a triumph for the Whigs ;
the inauguration of President Harrison followed in March,
1841, and his Cabinet was formed, with Daniel Webster at the
head, and Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury. Mr.
Ewing was an ardent Whig. After achieving distinction at
the bar, he had entered public life, and had already served
several terms in the Senate of the United States. He was an
admirer and friend of Henry Clay, and had warmly espoused
the protective principles of the great Whig leader. In April,
1841, only a month after his inauguration, President Harrison
died, and John Tyler, the Vice-President, succeeded him.
The old Cabinet, including Mr. Ewing, kept their portfolios,
but important divisions almost immediately arose between the
new President and his party on the question of banks, and Mr.
Tyler, who had been an old Democrat, was charged with having
abandoned the principles of the party which had supported him.
Mr. Clay led the attack with his accustomed vehemence and
courage, and finally, in September, 1841, after Mr. Clay drafted
several measures of banking which the Whig Congress passed,
and the Whig President vetoed, Mr. Ewing, with every other
member of the Cabinet, save Mr. Webster, resigned his office.
It was in the midst of these scenes of excitement and acrimony
that young Blaine passed his year at the home of the Secretary
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND EARLY LIFE. 2?
of the Treasury. He was thus getting his first lesson in politics
in a practical school, and learning perhaps something of that
art of managing men in which he was afterwards to display
his greatest power.
It is possible to underestimate as well as overestimate the
effect of early surroundings ; but it is probable the scenes the
boy witnessed at his uncle's house first inspired him with
higher thoughts. The weighty topics which he would there
hear discussed by men of experience, Who knew the real work-
ing and conduct of public life, would insensibly affect a mind
so susceptible as that of James G. Blaine. The atmosphere
in which for this period he lived and moved was charged with
politics, and every day the accomplished statesman who pre-
sided over the house would impart some lesson of life or
conduct or reveal some of the hidden springs of action which
move the affairs of a nation. We may be sure, at all events,
that the time spent in Mr. Ewing's intimate society was not
lost on a mind so quick to apprehend and so tenacious to
retain, and that there were sown the seeds of that noble ambi-
tion which has made him a chief and a leader.
CHAPTEK It.
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER.
in Washington College. — Making his mark. — Opinions of classmates. — Fa-
vorite professor. — Teaching in Blue Licks Military Institute, Ky. — En-
gagement and marriage. — Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind. — Early
historical work.
IN November, 1843, at the early age of thirteen, Mr. Blaine
entered Washington College, in the town of the same name.
His father was then Prothonotary of the county, and had re-
moved his residence to the college town, which was also the
county seat. Washington College has had an honorable his-
tory, and her roll of graduates contains many great names.
It was chartered in 1806, and in 1869 was united with Jeffer-
son College. Dr. McConaughy, the president of the college,
gave the young student a hearty welcome. " You are a brave
boy," he said ; "I am glad to see you and know you. We
shall have a good place ready for you September third, and I
shall be glad to see you in my home." From the first he
made the impression upon all who came in contact with him
that he was in sober earnest in the matter of getting an edu-
cation and making something of himself in the world. He
had a maturity of purpose and of thought far beyond his years.
He won the esteem and friendship of students and professors
by the steadiness and sturdiness with which he did his duty,
as well as the uniform kindliness of his manner. He was
ready and forcible in debate. In the discussion of political'
questions he was particularly at home, fairly overwhelming
his opponent by the mass of facts with which he was able to
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER. ^9
fortify every point, and tlie alertness with which he would de-
tect and turn to his own account any flaw in argument. He
was, moreover, a general favorite, not only in college, but
among the townspeople. He was a man who made friends by
being worthy of them. He was ambitious without meanness,
a rival without jealousy, open and above-board in all that he
did and said — a man above reproach and without a foe. His
classmates in various parts of the country have recalled in
these later years the scenes of their college days, and in the
reminiscences of men who knew him as only college men can
know their fellows, we shall find the truest picture of James
G. Blaine as he appeared to his associates before the shadow
of greatness had fallen upon him, and before, by the common
consent of a great party, he was placed at the head of its
hosts.
Alexander M. Gow, of Iowa, writes; " He was a boy of pleasing
manners and agreeable address, quite popular among the stu-
dents and in society. He was a better scholar than student,
having very quick perceptions and a remarkable memory ; he
was able to catch and retain easily what came to others by
hard work. In the literary society he was a politician, and it
was there, I think, that he received a good deal of the training
that made him what he is.
" We were thrown a great deal together, not only in school,
but in society. He was a great favorite in the best social
circles in the town ; he could learn his lessons easily ; he had
the most remarkable memory of any boy in school, and could
commit and retain his lessons without difficulty."
Mr. H. H. M. Pusey, of Iowa, another classmate, and a
member of Congress from Iowa, says :
" James Blaine, as I remember him, was a pretty well-built
boy and a hard student. He had an impediment of speech, how-
ever, which at first prevented him from joining in our debates
30 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
and declamations, but he could distance all his classmates in
the matter of studies, and his memory was remarkable. We
had in the college a literary society, of which I was president,
about the time Blaine was sixteen years old. One day he
came to me and said : ' B-Bill, I would like to be p-president
of the literary society. Can you f-f-fix it for me .? ' I an-
swered : ' Why, what do you know about the literary society ?
You have never taken any part in the debates, and have al-
ways preferred to pay your fine to taking active part. Do
you know anything about parliamentary practice ?' He re-
plied : ' No, but I can c-c-commit Cushing's Manual to mem-
ory in one night.' Well, the result was that at the next
meeting I ' fixed it ' for him, and at the meeting the next week
Blaine was elected president, vice Pusey, term expired. As
he had promised, he committed the entire contents of Cush-
ing's Manual, and he proved the best president the literary
society of the college ever had." Another story of the same
period, told by one of his old neighbors, is too good to be lost.
" I remember one day his father told him to get up early
and go to the market and buy a turkey. He gave him a dollar,
which was a good deal of money in those days. Well, James
brought home the bird and handed it to old Dinah, the
colored cook of the Blaine family. When the elder Blaine
came down to breakfast Dinah greeted him : ' Mars Blaine,
dat dar turkey what Mars Jim buyed dis mawnin' am de
quarest turkey I's ever seed. 'Deed it is, Mars Blaine.' ' Why,
what's the matter with it, Dinah ? ain't it big enough ?' replied
the old gentleman. ' It ought to be, surely ; Jim paid a dollar
for it.' ' Oh, yes, Mars Blaine, de turkey is big 'nuff, but it
am de funniest turkey dis yer nigger ever seed.' * Mars Blaine '
went out to the kitchen to look at the ' turkey,' and found it
to be a ten-year-old goose. He called Jim down and hauled
him over the coals, saying: 'Why, Jim, you ought to be
i
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER. 33
ashamed of yourself. Fifteen years old, and can't tell a turkey
from a goose !' Jim hung his head and simply replied : ' Why,
how's a boy to tell a turkey from a goose when its feathers are
Hon. Robert E. Williams, of Illinois, now a prominent law-
yer, a college-mate, but not a classmate, bears this testimony :
" Young Blaine was a big-hearted, whole-souled, good-natured
fellow in his college days. We both attended Washington
College, in Pennsylvania, and were intimate friends. Blaine
was a good companion in his school dg-ys — strong in physical
strength, fond of out-door sports, yet in a certain sense loving
seclusion and his books.
" He was a faithful student, and was regarded by his college-
mates as a brilliant and progressive scholar. He was an
aggressive fellow whenever there was anything to be accom-
plished which he thought would be productive of good results.
From his earliest college days he seemed to have but one
ambition, and that was to make his mark as a journalist.
" He was an industrious writer, and wrote, perhaps, during
his college course, a greater number and a greater variety of
essays and other articles than any member of his class. He
used to remark that a school-teacher or an editor could ac-
complish more good in the world than any one else, and he
thought, after leaving college, he would surely enter the jour-
nalistic walks of life."
Another says : " He was a great reader of history, and was
so methodical in his arrangement of facts that he could in an
instant present an array of them that would overwhelm an
opponent. An incident illustrating this power is told of him :
When a little boy, his sister challenged him to a contest in nam-
ing the counties of the State of Pennsylvania. She named
them all, and he immediately named them, and every county
seat besides,
34 BIOGKAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Another writes: "His most notable trait, perhaps, was
combativeness. He was always at home in an argument, and
generally invited it. It was the delight of the Democratic
politicians to engage him in political discussions, as he was,
even then, well versed in political history, and was an ardent
upholder of the Whig doctrines to the last. During his course
in 1844, the party lines were drawn unusually close regarding
some widely discussed questions that led to the Mexican War,
and in all these affairs young Blaine's readiness and force in
argument was a matter of general remark.
" His ability to give utterance to anything he had to say,
in the most forcible manner, was also noticeable in his wran-
gles or political discussions with his fellow-students. His
absolute self-command under difficulties, here also exhibited
itself distinctly in his character. He was the most skillful
mathematician in his class, and frequently would demonstrate
the problem in a way not found in the books."
A room-mate gives this item, which is very suggestive as
showing his strong political bent and power : " I remember,
when we were rooming together, that our room was a debat-
ing headquarters. Blaine would sit all night and talk politics
if he could get anybody to talk back or listen. He preferred
an opponent, but if he couldn't get one, he was content if he
had some one to sit and listen to him.
" He had a fashion of sitting sideways at the table, with his
feet cocked up in such a way that he could swing his right
hand around and whack the table. There he would sit and
talk, and pound that table until I often thought he would split
our ears and that table-top at the same time.
" He had national. State, and county affairs on his finger
ends, was familiar with men and measures, and could run
over all of them. Many a night I have pleaded with him to
stop, and let me go to sleep, but the only way to shut him up
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER. 35
vs'as to put out the visitors and the lights at the same time.
Then he had to go to bed."
One further reminiscence, and an interesting one : " To the
new-comers and freshmen Blaine was always a hero. To them
he was uniformly kind, ever ready to assist and advise them,
and to make smooth and pleasant their initiation into college
life. His handsome person, his ready sympathy and prompt
assistance, his frank and generous nature, and his brave manly
bearing, made him the best known, the best loved, and the
most popular boy at school. He was the arbiter among
younger boys in all their disputes, and the authority with those
of his own age, -on all questions. He was a natural student,
excelling pre-eminently in mathematics and English branches,
showing also good work in the dead languages of the classics.
Mathematics, without question, were to him a pleasure. He was
always perfect in mathematical recitations, and was the idol
of his teacher, Professor Aldrich."
His intellect early showed vigor, thoroughness, and disci-
pline. He was not content to follow ths books. A great
memory rarely combines with high mathematical or reasoning
power, but in Mr. Blaine was early seen that most wonderful
combination, and to it his commanding force of intellect is
no doubt largely due. Few men have this union of great
retentive and great reasoning power in any degree, almost none
in so marked a degree as Mr. Blaine. No one can come in con-
tact with him without being impressed and almost startled by
the tremendous power which this enables him to wield. The
man who detects at a glance the weak point or fallacy of an
argument, and remembers unerringly the one fact in the whole
world of facts which exposes it, the man whose memory never
sleeps and whose logic seldom falters is an antagonist whose
lance is quick to kill and powerful to protect.
Even in college, while he could have memorized a demon-
36 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
stration in Euclid as readily as Cusliing's Manual, he rather
sought to reach and establish his proposition in a fresh way
and by original thought. His vigorous and eager mind would
sometimes throw off restraints and discard aids, confident, like
the athlete, in the elasticity and discipline of his strength.
In college, as in after life, Mr. Blaine was strictly temperate
in all his habits. He graduated in 1847, sharing the hon-
ors, in a class of thirty-threo, with Mr. John C. Hervey,
who afterwards became Superintendent of Public Instruction
in Wheeling, Va., and Mr. T. W. Porter, who devoted him-
self to journalism. It is noticeable, as showing the tendency
of his thoughts, that his graduating oration was upon " The
Duty of an Educated American."
The best results of college training are not always those
which can be measured in marks, or even in knowledge and
discipline. Often it will be found that the personal influence
of some one professor, more than anything that he or anybody
else taught, was that which in after life remained longest and
bore the best fruit. In our large colleges such intimacies are
increasingly impossible, but there was a man in Washington
College, in 1847, who did for James G. Blaine what few
men could have done — threw around him the influence of a
thorough manhood. Mr. Blaine owes to Professor Murray a
debt which cannot be measured, and which he is still proud to
own. With this valued friend and instructor he read through
the Greek Testament, taking a portion every Sunday.
It would be interesting to recover, if possible, the Salutatory
which James G. Blaine rose timidly to address to his friends
and schoolmates. The subject, we have seen, was one that
would only have been chosen by a youth of some originality
of thought. His class numbered thirty-three, of whom seven-'
teen entered the Christian ministry.
The following is the commencement programme :
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER.
37
ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT
OF
WASHINGTON COLLEGE, PA.
Wednesday, September 29, 1847.
GRADUATING CLASS.
Andrew Barr, John H. Hampton, Edward B. Neely,
George Baird, R. C. Holliday, William M. Orr,
James G. Blaine, John G. Jacob, Samuel Power,
Josiah C. Cooper, Richard H. Lee, William H. M. Pusey,
George D. Curtis, John V. LeMoyne, T. WUson Porter,
Thomas Creighton, La Fayette Markle, Huston Quail,
R. C. Colmery, G. H. Miller, Robert Robe,
Cephas Dodd, J. R. Moore, J. A. Rankin,
Hugh W. Forbes, William S. Moore, James H. Smith,
Alexander M. Gow, Robert J. Munce, John H. Storer,
John C. Hervey, M. P. Morrison, Alexander Wilson. — 33,
MATBI ALM^ 8IMUS EONORI.
ORDER OF EXERCISES.
Music — Prayer — Mvsic.
1st. Latin Salutatory. John C. Hervey, Brooke County, Va.
Music.
3d. English Salutatory and Oration . .James G. Blaine, West Brownsville, Pa.
Music.
3d. Greek Salutatory T. W. Porter, Fayette County, Pa.
Music.
4th. Oration — The Sword and the Plough J. G. Jacob, Wellsborgh, Va.
Music.
5th. Oration — Byron Huston Quail, Union Valley, Pa.
Music.
6th. Oration — The Era of Napoleon La Fayette Markle, Mill Grove, Pa.
Music.
7th. A Poem— The Collegian G. D. Curtis, Grove Creek, Va.
Music.
8th. Oration— Moral Warfare J. R. Moore, WellsvUle, O.
Music.
9th. Oration — Poverty Useful in the Development of Genius
R. C. Colmery, Hayesville, O.
10th. Oration— The American Boy E. B. Neely, Washington City, D. C.
Music — Conferring of Degrees — Music.
11th. Valedictory William M. Orr, Wayne County, O,
Music.
BENEDICTION.
SS felOGKAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Like most young men just out of college, Mr. Blaine was
brouglit up with a turn at tlie door of Dame Fortune, and
very much puzzled as to whither she would lead him. His
little " I," which had stood up so erect and proud before, had
drooped its head and bent its knees with a very humble inter-
rogation point. But he was not kept long at the door. A
call came for a teacher in the Blue Lick Military Academy, at
Georgetown, Kentucky, and Mr. Blaine was recommended by
the faculty of the college for the place. The salary was $500 a
year. Though not yet eighteen, the young adventurer did not
hesitate to accept the place. In 1872, writing to a classmate,
he says : ^' Ten days after graduation I went to Kentucky,
where for nearly three years I spent the life of a tutor."
He taught mathematics, Latin, and United States history.
The boys all liked him, not because he was easy, but because
he was fair. He is said to have been able to call by name
every one of his four hundred scholars. " He should have
been a judge," says an old pupil. " His keen sense of justice
and his wonderful ability to discover deceits or shams, made
him master of the situation. We often managed to mislead
the other teachers, and could offer frail excuses to the princi-
pal often with impunity, but to Mr. Blaine never. He knew
before we spoke, and often kindly saved the boys from lying
by rebuking them first and letting them explain afterwards.
I never knew of his making a mistake in that matter."
The institute was under the charge of Colonel F. Johnson,
and about twenty miles away, at Millersburg, was a young
ladies' seminary, of which Mrs. Johnson was principal. Among
the teachers at the seminary was Miss Harriet Stanwood, of
Ipswich, Mass. Mr. Blaine met the lady at a Sunday-school
picnic and formed an acquaintance with her which soon ripened
into a mutual attachment, which, after a few years of engage-
ment, was perfected by a marriage of unbroken happiness.
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER. 39
In the home, in society, in. the closer relations of life, which
have no history but that which is written on the secret tablets
of the heart, as well as in the discharge of public duties, Mrs.
Blaine has ever displayed those firm, but gentle and tender
qualities which make womanhood noble, and which to the wife
and mother are an unfading crown of glory.
While Mr. Blaine was teaching in Kentucky, he spent his
winter vacations in New Orleans, forming many pleasant
acquaintances and acquiring a valuable personal knowledge of
Southern ideas and manners.
It was during his residence at the South that Mr. Blaine
saw slavery at home — saw it too, when, though still in the
insolence of its power, destiny had marked it for a tardy, but
awful destruction. That was a period of storm and stress in
the minds of men — the stern harbinger of fate for the system
that had battened so long upon the honor and fair fame of the
freest land the sun looks down upon. While Mr. Blaine was
still in college, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, introduced
his famous " Proviso," providing " that as an express and fun-
damental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the
Kepublic of Mexico by the United States, neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude should ever exist in any part of said ter-
ritory." The Proviso was defeated, but Wilmot was not
defeated. The agitation was long and bitter, but out of it
grew the Free Soil party which, with an anti-slavery platform,
began, in 1848, the great struggle for abolition. While the
echo of the Wilmot Proviso was still resounding through the
length and breadth of the land, the Presidential campaign of
1848 was fought. Soon after the inauguration of General
Taylor, California, with a free constitution in her hand, ap-
plied for admission to the Union. The debate was long and
bitter, and it was only after a compromise had been effected by
Mr. Clay, that thB new State was admitted.
40 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr. Blaine's impressions of slavery, as he saw it at this
period, were given years afterwards in an editorial which ap-
peared in the Kennebec Journal. He said :
" We — the editor — have to plead guilty to a residence of
four years, prior to and including 1850, in the State of Ken-
tucky. We were engaged in what we still consider the hon-
orable capacity of a teacher in a literary institution, then and
now in deservedly high standing with the several States, both
North and South, which patronize and sustain it. Invited to
take the position for a certain pecuniary consideration, which
we irregularly received, and having to the best of our ability,
and to the satisfaction of all concerned, discharged our duties,
we have been under the impression that the matter was closed
and nothing due from either party to the other in the way of
personal obligation or political fealty. The Age, however,
seems to think that, having partaken of the ' slaveholders'
salt ' (for which we paid), we should be dumb to the slave-
holders* wrong-doings.
" Our residence in the South gave us, we hope, the advan-
tage of a thorough comprehension of the question of slavery
in all its aspects, and of the views of the men who sustain it.
" We beg leave to say (since we are reluctantly forced into
this allusion to self), that the anti-slavery sentiments which,
from our earliest youth, we imbibed in our native Pennsyl-
vania— the first of the ' old thirteen ' to abolish slavery — were
deepened and strengthened by a residence among slave-
holders, and that nowhere, either on slave soil or free soil,
have we expressed other feelings than those of decided hos-
tility to the extension of the withering curse."
Leaving Kentucky about 1851, Mr. Blaine returned to
Pennsylvania and entered upon the study of law, reading at
first in his old county of Washington, and afterwards, while a
teacher in Philadelphia, under the direction of the late Theo-
THE STtlbENT AND TEACHER. 43
dore Cuyler. He never sought admission to the bar, but his
legal training proved of great service to him in after life.
In the summer of 1852, in answer to an advertisement, he
applied for and obtained a position as principal teacher in the
boys' department of the Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind,
where he remained two years. Mr. Chapin, the principal of
the school, has preserved some interesting reminiscences of this
period,
" There were thirty or forty other applicants, but his man-
ner was so winning, and he possessed so many manifestly valu-
able qualities that I closed an engagement with him at once.
His qualities which impressed me most deeply were his cul-
ture, the thoroughness of his educatiou, and his unfailing self-
possession. He was also a man of very decided will, and was
very much disposed to argument. He was very young then —
only twenty-two — and was rather impulsive, leaping to a con-
clusion very quickly. But he was always ready to defend his
conclusions, however suddenly he seemed to have reached
them. We had many a familiar discussion, and his argu-
ments always astonished me by the knowledge they displayed
of facts in history and politics. His memory was remarkable,
and seemed to retain details which ordinary men would for-
get.
" Now, I will show you something that illustrates how
thoroughly Mr. Blaine mastered anything he took hold of,"
said Mr. Chapin, as he took from a desk in the corner of the
room a thick quarto manuscript book, bound in dark, brown
leather, and lettered "Journal" on the comer. "This book
Mr. Blaine compiled with great labor from the minute books
of the Board of Managers. It is a historical view of the in-
stitution from the time of its foundation up to the time of
Mr. Blaine's departure. He did all the work in his own room,
telling no pne of it until he left. Then he presented it,
44 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
through me, to the Board of Managers, who were both sur-
prised and gratified. I believe they made him a present of
$100 as a thank-offering for an invaluable work."
Indeed, this book, the first historical work of Mr. Blaine,
is a model of its kind. On the title page, in ornamental
penwork, executed at that time by Mr. Chapin, is the in-
scription :
JOUENAL
OF THE
PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTION
FOR THE
INSTEUCTION OF THE BLIND,
FROM ITS FOUNDATION^.
COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS
BY
JAMES G. BLAINE.
1854.
The methodical character of the work is most remarka-
ble. On the first page every abbreviation used in the book
is entered alphabetically. The first entry reads: "On this,
and the four following pages, wiU be found some notes in
regard to the origin of the Pennsylvania Institution for the
Instruction of the Blind, furnished by I. Francis Fisher,
Esq." From this page to the 188th, in which is the last
entry made by Mr. Blaine, every line is a model of neatness
and accuracy. Qn every page is a wide margin. At the top
THE STUDENT AND TEACHER. 45
of the margin is the year, in ornamental figures. Below is a
brief statement of what the next contains opposite that por-
tion of the marginal entry. Every year's record closes with
an elaborate table, giving the attendance of members of the
board. The last pages of the book are filled with alphabetical
lists of officers of the institution and statistical tables, com-
piled by the same patient and untiring hand. One of the
lists is that of the " principal teachers." No. 13 is followed
by the signature " James G. Blaine, from August 5th, 1852,
to " — and then, in another hand, the record is completed with
the date November 23d, 1854.
"I think that the book," remarked Mr. Chapin, "illus-
trates the character of the man in accurate mastery of facts
and orderly presentation of details. We still use it for refer-
ence, and Mr. Frank Battles, the assistant principal, is bring-
ing the record down to the present time.
" Mr. Blaine taught mathematics, in which he excelled, and
in the higher branches."
This brings us to the close of the more uneventful period
of Mr. Blaine's life. Henceforth as editor and statesman he
is to be a prominent figure in the political movements of his
State and country, and to mount steadily upward on the
ladder of political preferment until his foot shall rest upon
the topmost round.
CHAPTER III.
IN THE editor's CHAIR.
Aptitude for newspaper work. — Removal to Augusta. — Partnership with
Joseph Baker. — " Kennebec Journal." — The break-up of the Whig party.
— The "Portland Advertiser." — The Fugitive-slave law. — Fremont nomi-
nated.— The Republican party. — Blaine's editorial career. — His articles on
the Anti -slavery question. — The new party.— W. H. Seward. — The Dred
Scott decision. — Judge Davis. — Blaine's opposition to his removal.
THE modern newspaper is the modern wonder. It forms
and leads public opinion. It makes knowledge a common
possession. It gives wings to eloquence and an added sting to
disgrace. The earth makes a single turn, and before it gets
fairly started on the next, the secrets of the first are out, all
down in black and white in the columns of the morning paper.
The mightiest of mighty pens is in the editor's hands. Even
the proprietor of a country weekly reaches more people in one
issue of his paper than his minister does in a whole year.
The orator may have his thousands, but the editor has his tens
of thousands. To a man of Mr. Blaine's tastes and talents
journalism was peculiarly attractive. The work harmonized
with his impatient, aggressive spirit and his political enthu-
siasm, and his mental endowment especially fitted him to
succeed in any position which required clear, vigorous think-
ing and ready, forcible writing. In his college days he had
dreamed of editorial chairs, and now he was to have one.
In 1854 he gave up his position in Philadelphia and
removed to Augusta, Me., then a city of about 8,000 inhabi-
tants, and since 1830 the capital of the State. Mr. Blaine
IN THE EDITOR'S CHAIR. 47
immediately formed a partnership with Mr. Joseph Baker,
a leading lawyer of the Kennebec bar, for the purchase and
publication of the Kennebec Journal, a weekly Whig news-
paper. The Whig party was already breaking up. It had
failed to grapple with the vital question of the hour, and to
declare itself either for or against the anti-slavery movement.
But the Kepublican party had not yet been formed, and the
efforts of Mr, Blaine and other patriotic men were devoted to
an earnest defense of the only party in which at the time there
seemed to be a hope of better things. His success was imme-
diate and flattering. He was soon personally known to every
man of prominence in the city, and his name was a recognized
power in the community before he could have rightfully
expected to have won its confidence.
There was a terseness and directness in his writing, a clear-
ness and vigor in his thinking, a deep conviction in his enthu-
siasm for the anti-slavery cause which speedily brought him
to the front and made him a leader almost before he had
learned to follow. Mr. Blaine continued in the active control
of the Journal until 1857, when he assumed editorial charge
of a daily newspaper in Portland, called the Advertiser. Dur-
ing the campaign of 1860, he again — on the illness of the
regular editor— conducted the Kennebec Jowrnal. But his
journalistic career properly closed with his election to the
Maine Legislature in 1858. It covered a period when men
were taking sides on the slavery question. The abolition
movement was coming to the birth. Some patriots began to
dread the truth of Benton's prophecy : " So long as the people
of the North shall be content to attend to commerce and man-
ufactures, and accept the policy and rule of the disunionists,
they will condescend to remain in the Union ; but should the
Northern people attempt to exercise their just influence in the
nation, they will attempt to seize the Grovernment or disrupt
48 BIOGBAPHT OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
the Union." In September, 1850, the Fugitive-slave Law was
passed. The excitement at the North was intense. In Syra-
cuse, N. Y., a negro named Jerry was forcibly rescued from
the hands of the Government officers. In Boston, Shadrach,
another fugitive slave, was taken by his friends from the Su-
preme Court chamber, when it became evident that there was
no hope from the law. When Marshal Devens marched out
of the Boston Court House guarded by United States troops,
and having in his custody the runaway slave, Anthony Burns,
the honor of Boston was stained by an act which, under cover
of the law, violated the simplest and deepest instincts of justice
in the minds of an enlightened people. Plainly the fime had
come to strike. The iron was hot. Who should wield the
hammer ? Old men touched the handle and shrunk back.
But the youth of the North, inspired alike with a hatred of
slavery and a courage that would not quail at the crack of the
slaveholder's whip, took up the hammer, and in the name of
patriotism and intelligence and justice, struck the blow. Mr.
Blaine early felt the new leaven working in his mind. He was
a Republican before the Republican party. He was a delegate
from Maine to the first convention of that party, and one of
its secretaries. General Fremont was nominated, and the great
movement henceforth grew in breadth and aggressiveness.
The late Governor Kent, of Maine, speaking of Mr. Blaine's
career in that State, has said : "Almost from the day of his
assuming editorial charge of the Kennebec Journal, at the
early age of twenty-three, Mr. Blaine sprang into a position
of great influence in the politics and policy of Maine. At
twenty-five he was a leading power in the councils of the Re-
publican party, so recognized by Fessenden, Hamlin, and the
two Morrills, and others then and still prominent in the State.
Before he was twenty-nine he was chosen chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Republican organization in Maine
IN THE editor's CHAIR. 49
— a position he has held ever since, and from which 'he has
practically shaped and directed every political campaign in the
State, always leading his party to brilliant victory."
Mr. Blaine has given us the following masterly review of
the events which led to the formation of the Republican party
and its early history :
" Thenceforward new alliances were rapidly formed. In the
South those Whigs who, though still unwilHng to profess an anti-
slavery creed, would not unite with the Democrats, were re-or-
ganized under the name of the American party, with Humphrey
Marshall, Henry Winter Davis, Horace Maynard, and men of that
class, for leaders. This party was founded on proscription of
foreigners, and with special hostility to the Eoman Catholic
Church. It had a fitful and feverish success, and in 1854-5,
under the name of Know-nothings, enrolled tens of thousands in
secret lodges. But its creed was narrow, its principles were illiberal,
and its methods of procedure boyish and undignified. The great
body of thinking men in the North saw that the real contest im-
pending was against slavery and not against naturalization laws
and ecclesiastical dogmas. The Know-nothings therefore speedi-
ly disappeared, and a new party sprang into existence composed
of Anti-Slavery Whigs and Anti-Slavery Democrats.
" The latter infused into the ranks of the new organization a
spirit and an energy which Whig traditions could never inspire.
" The same name was not at once adopted in all the free States
in 1854, but by the ensuing year there was a general recognition
throughout the North that all who intended to make a serious
fight against the pro-slavery Democracy, would unite under the
flag of the Eepublican party. In its first effort, without compact
organization, without discipline, it rallied the anti-slavery senti-
ment so successfully as to carry nearly all of the free States, and
to secure a plurality of the members of the House of Representa-
tives. The indignation of the people knew no bounds. Old
political landmarks disappeared, and party prejudices of these
generations -^were swept aside in a day. With such success in the
50 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
outset, the Eepublicans prepared for a vigorous struggle in the
approaching Presidential election.
" The anti-slavery development of the North was not more in-
tense than the pro-slavery development of the South. Every
other issue was merged in the one absorbing demand by Southern
slaveholders for what they sincerely believed to be their rights
in the Territories. It was not viewed on either side as an
ordinary political contest. It was felt to be a question, not of
expediency, but of morality, not of policy, but of honor. It did
not merely enlist men — women took a large part in the agitation.
It did not end with absorbing the laity ; the clergy were as pro-
foundly concerned.
*' The power of the Church, on both sides of the dividing line,
was used with great effect in shaping public opinion and directing
political action.
" The Missouri Compromise was repealed in May. Before the
end of the year a large majority of the people of the North and a
large majority of the people of the South were distinctly arrayed
against each other on a question which touched the interest, the
pride, the conscience, and the religion of all who were concerned
in the controversy. Had either side been insincere, there would
have been voluntary yielding or enforced adjustment. But each
felt itself to be altogether in the right, and its opponent alto-
gether in the wrong. Thus they stood confronting each other
at the close of the year 1854."
A few extracts from his editorials will, better than any
words of ours, show the drift of his opinion in these stirring
ante-helium days. The following declaration of principles
appeared in the Journal soon after Mr. Blaine assumed the
management of it :
" Politically, The Journal will pursue the same course it has
marked out for the last two months. We shall cordially support
the Morrill or Republican party, the substantial principles of
which are, as we understand them, freedom, temperance, river
and harbor improvements within Constitutional limits, home-
IN THE editor's CHAIR, 53
steads for freemen, and a just administration of the public lands
of the State and nation. We shall advocate the cause of popular
education as the surest safeguard of our Eepublican institutions,
and especially the common schools of the State and city."
In December, 1854, a ringing editorial appeared on " The
Permanency of the Republican Party." We quote a part of it :
**The great Republican party that has suddenly developed
itself on the political theater, embodying the anti-slavery senti-
ment of the country as its leading characteristic, when considered
in its natural elements, in its history and progress, or in the light
of experience, has every appearance of permanence and progress.
*' It does not, as the Mercury intimates, foreshadow the dis-
solution of the Union, but its salvation. The slave States will
never dissolve the Union. They have too great a stake in its
preservation, for the arm of the Federal Government is absolutely
necessary to keep them from insurrection and massacre by the
millions of slaves now groaning under the accursed lash. But
dissolution, if it ever come, must come from the free States,
stripped of their rights and degraded in the government, as they
have been for the last twenty years, and goaded on to desperation
by a continuance and perpetual repetition of these aggressions.
The Union will be saved by arresting the gigantic strides of the
slave-power towards political supremacy, driving it back into its
legitimate sphere, and restoring to the North its just and equal
rights. But that the other alternative, mentioned by the Mercury,
may not in the end result from the permanent dominion of the
Republican party, we are not prepared to deny; on the contrary,
it is the hope of many an earnest heart that beats the warmest
in this glorious movement, that God in His wise Providence will
make it the instrumentality of the final '^extinction of slavery"
in this Republic. In this hope we live and labor, and will labor
while we live, believing that a country redeemed from the shame
and curse of slavery, purified and restored to the Republicanism
of its palmy days, will be the richest legacy we can leave to pos-
terity. Drive rum as a beverage from all the avenues of society,
place the tide of foreign immigration that is pouring in upon us
54 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
with sucli fearful power under proper restrictions, and in a course
of education that shall prepare it, as the American citizen is now
prepared, for the high functions of freedom ; strike the fetters
from the limb of every slave that breathes in all this vast domain,
so that, from center to circumference, only the glad shout of
liberty shall be heard, and the smile of Providence will bless this
land as it never 'has been blessed, and the glory shall roll on from
generation to generation while time shall last."
In March, 1855, Mr. Blaine wrote enthusiastically of the
formation of the new party in Maine, and of its first convention:
" It can no longer be questioned that we have in Maine a well-
organized and powerful party, which shares the sympathy and
influence of a decided majority of the people. That radical and
permanent causes have been operating for years to bring about
•the present condition of things, is so well known as to need no
repetition. Ignored and resisted as those causes were by selfish
schemers, personal aims, and the force of old party watchwords,
they increased yearly in breadth and strength, until they have
become one resistless current of public opinion, fed by the various
springs of moral and patriotic feelings, which are so fresh and
healthful in the social soil of Maine, on which the ship of State
is fairly launched, with the flags of temperance, freedom, and
American enterprise waving proudly at the masthead. The Ee-
publican party, therefore, is not the creation of a few individuals ;
it is the production of moral ideas which have long been asserting
their sway in the consciences and hearts of the people. It is
pre-eminently the child of ideas and of the people. Strong as
these ideas and their friends had shown themselves in the political
efforts of the two or three years past, old political organizations
had prevented the union of men of like principles in one well-
organized party. The men were called by different names, yet
they had a common faith and common purposes. Their principles
needed expression in a common platform. The people desired
one political family and one organization. Eight, expediency and
necessity called for a convention. What time more opportune
and appropriate than the birthday of Washington ? So ready
IN THE editor's CHAIR. §5
were the people for action, so manifest the necessity, that a long
notice was not required. The convention of the 32d was one of
the most remarkable and interesting that ever assembled in our
State. The number in attendance was very large — not less than
nine or ten hundred. It was composed of the true and influential
portion of the people from all parts of the State. Its members
came in due proportion from all the former poHtical parties, in
names of long-established reputation and worth, known in the
State and out of it; in men possessing the confidence and repre-
senting the convictions of their respective vicinities, no political
assemblage ever held in the State surpassed the one of last week.
No body of men could be more united in opinion and resolution.
The enthusiasm manifested was not a sudden and transitory feel-
ing, but was the result of a calm jet intense conviction that a
new era had arrived in the politics of the State and Nation, that
high and solemn duties are now devolving on our citizens. The.
resolutions and the speeches indicated the spirit and the purpose,
the principles and the settled determination of the Republicans
of Maine, and, as we believe, of that great and truly national
party which is so rapidly gathering numbers, strength, and pres-
tige, which is to march into power in 1856, and bring the country
back to the purity and the idea of its founders."
Upon another occasion he wrote :
" The Eepublican party is the only true national party. Its
platform is the only ground upon which the friends of the Union
can stand. Its fast gathering strength is to be the bulwark of
the Union against the dangers that thicken around its future.
It is the only breakwater against the tide of despotism that
threatens to spread over the whole country. It calls on the
nation to return to the policy, the principles, and the maxims
of the statesmen who won our liberties, reared the fabric of our
Government, and gave its first direction. Its principles are broad
as the Union. It demands national men, national measures, and
is the only truly national party that has the prospect of carrying
the country against the sectional, dangerous, and corrupt political
organization that now controls the country, to the disgrace of
the American name throughout the civilized world,"
56 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
On the election to the United States Senate of Wm. H.
Seward, the great Kepublican leader, in one of his editorials
we find these strong, exulting words :
" The prayer of the freeman is answered. A question of the
highest importance, the right decision of which for months has
excited the deepest solicitude, has been solved to the joy of pat-
riotic Americans, and for the welfare of the public. By the force
of his own character as a man and a statesman, and of the moral
and political principles which he represents, and which center in
him, William H. Seward has been re-elected to the American
Senate by the State which in her earlier days gave the nation a
Clinton, a Livingston, a Jay, a Hamilton, and which now with
her population, her resources, and strength increased twenty-
fold, bears up in her arms freedom's great leader against traitors
at home and storms of relentless opposition from abroad. The
heart of the nation throbs at the event which, amid exultation
and congratulations, lightning and steam are announcing to the
true men of this whole continent and of the civilized world. The
contest through- which he has passed is without parallel in the
history of this country. We have waited until the clouds of the
conflict were passing away and the cannon of rejoicing had ceased,
to express our exultant gratitude at the event to which we have
looked forward with the strongest hope.
"Reviewing the field, we saw that nothing but Mr. Seward's
naked strength and the devotion of the people of the Empire
State to him and to his principles could rescue him from the
combined array against him. We watched the contest with the
deepest solicitude. Four months have passed. The coalition of
wickedness has culminated. The battle is over. The great
American statesman is unscathed, and now occupies a prouder
elevation before his countrymen than ever before, and a serener
and brighter future is securely his. Never since the establish-
ment of the Eepublic has there been a greater necessity for a
leading statesman of far-seeing vision, of heroic, unyielding will,
of courage that no threat or danger can blanch, of genius to or-
ganize and guide. We trust the friends of Mr. Seward will not
misunderstand the cause and meaning of his triumph. His elec-
IN THE editor's CHAIR. 57
tion is not the success or defeat of the old political organizations.
His bitterest and ablest foes are among those who claim to belong
to the party with which he labored from its formation to the
hour of its final overthrow. Many of his ablest and most devoted
friends and supporters have belonged to the Democratic party.
In reality his election has been secured by that party which has
been gathering numbers and strength from all former organiza-
tions, which has arisen, a young giant.
" Not as the champion of an effete and rapidly dissolving party,
but as a great statesman and sworn defender of freedom and the
Union, he finds congenial fellowship with Chase, Sumner, Wade,
Fessenden, Hamlin, King, Johnson, Wilson, Strong, Hall, Dur-
kee, and that whole school of vigorous determined men of com-
mon blood and aim, who are, by the will of God and the people,
to make it historical fact in 1860, that slavery is sectional and
temporary, that freedom is national and universal."
Mr. Blaine's early and consistent repugnance to slavery are
strongly shown in the columns of the Journal :
" We make it as a sober and well-considered statement that
our country is to-day in greater peril by elements and agencies
within her borders, than at the commencement of the Eevolution
by the plans of the British ministry and the power of British
arms. It requires no prophet to decide that the aggressions of
the slave power are more dangerous to the freedom and progress
of the American people, than the threatened despotism of England
in 1775. And what is the most melancholy and shameful, these
aggressions have been invited and vastly strengthened by the
treachery and cowardice of men living in the free States."
Speaking of the proposition to carry slavery into free
Kansas, he said :
" Let not the fatal spirit of compromise induce us to acquiesce
in past wrongs, because of some promised advantage and security
in the future. Compromise with slavery is but another phrase
for Sacrifice of Liberty ; and in the past we have had enough,
and more than enough, of that."
58 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Of the famous Dred Scott decision, Mr. Blaine wrote :
" Whither do all these things tend ? Are we to be a per-
manently subdued people ? We can but regard them as the last
turns to the screws of despotism, that presage the mighty uprising
and triumph of the people. Slavery has got to the farthest hmits,
of its power and aggression. Henceforth it must lose in the great
contest which it is waging against freedom. The day of truce
has gone by ; the slaveholders have left the free men of the nation
no other resort but revolution — a revolution, if slavery wills it
to be no other, only through the peaceful agencies of the press,
public opinion, of religion, and of the ballot-box. These aided
by time, -and the increase of free population, at no distant day,
will give us every department of the government, and regain to
national freedom what has been lost by Southern cupidity and
Northern treason."
On the removal of Judge Davis from the Supreme bench of
the State for purely political reasons, Mr. Blaine vigorously
denounced the act, and took the same high stand for the
independence of the Judiciary that he has ever since con-
sistently maintained. It is well known in Maine that he lent
the whole power of his great influence to secure the appoint-
ment and confirmation in 1875 of a learned and upright
Democratic Judge, by a Republican Governor and Coimcil.
Even after the appointment by the Governor the confirmation
was warmly resisted both in and out of the Council on the
ground of the political faith of the nominee, and but for
Mr. Blaine's personal influence, would undoubtedly have been
refused. Respecting the removal of Judge Davis, we find these
plain words of denunciation :
" The whole proceeding, from its inception to its close, was
a bold and reckless piece of political crime, which made a
deep stain on the history of the State. It was an attack on
the independence of the Judiciary, of the most dangerous and
pernicious tendency."
IN THE EDITOR'S CHAIR, 59
We have quoted thus at length from the editorial utter-
ances of Mr. Blaine, not only for the light they shed upon
that dark period of our history that preceded the civil war,
but also because they show that at the outset of his public
career he espoused those principles of staunch loyalty, un-
compromising integrity, and fidelity to great ideas which
have made him a respected and admired leader, a wise
counselor, an able and successful statesman. They also
reveal what is perhaps the secret of that wonderful magnetism
which draws friends to him and binds them fast. His
whole-hearted, constant, and lasting devotion to any cause in
which he heartily believed, and to any man who honored him
with the name of friend. He is a warm partisan. That is
plain in his editorials, but there is a genuineness, directness,
strength of conviction, and definiteness of purpose, evidenced
even in these early utterances, which mark him as a man to be
implicitly and cordially trusted, one whom friend and foe
alike would always find at his post ready for defense or attack.
CHAPTER IV.
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE.
Blaine a Delegate to the Convention. — His diffidence before the Eatification
Meeting. — His brilliant success. — His speech on the acquisition of Cuba.—
"No other nation must have it." — The Chicago Convention of 1860. —
Blaine's description of Douglas and Lincoln, — Blaine as delegate. —
Speech in favor of the administration of Lincoln. — " The one man power."
— Patriotic sentiment. — Nominated for the United States Congress, 1863.
THE prominence into which Blaine had come as a jour-
nalist naturally led to his taking an active personal share
in the practical work of politics. In 1855, the troubles in
Kansas were at their height, and a state of almost civil war
existed. The excesses to which the controversy between the
opponents and advocates of the extension of slavery filled every
journal, and the assault of Brooks on Sumner had filled all
lovers of free thought and free speech with the bitterest abhor-
rence of the party that had such champions. The Democratic
Convention met June 2, 1856, and nominated James Buchanan
as its candidate for the Presidency ; Fremont being nominated
by the Eepublicans. In the previous year Blaine had been
secretary of the State Convention ; he Avas now sent as one of
the delegates of Maine to the Republican Convention, in
Philadelphia. He cast his vote for Fremont. On his return
to Augusta, a Ratification Meeting was held, and he was
called on to address the audience. Pressed to speak, he at
first refused, but afterward consented. Standing before the
large audience he made a poor beginning, but soon entered
into the spirit of the hour, and so clear, forcible, and convin-
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 63
cing was his speech that from that moment he was considered
not only an able writer, but one of the most effective platform
speakers in the party. Throughout the campaign he spoke in
many places, and his reputation soon extended beyond his
section.
Henceforth he was looked on as a man who would rise.
Again and again his friends urged him to accept a nomination
as candidate for the lower house of the State Legislature, and
nothing but unwearied persistence induced him to accept it
in 1858. The timidness that had characterized his appear-
ance in public two years before, still haunted him, and during
the canvass the speeches he made were few and brief. It is
strange to read that an orator so ready in debate, so prepared
for every emergency, so capable of swaying all hearers, either
in the halls of the Legislature or on "the stump," should have
ever been so diffident and so unable to conquer his trepidation
before an audience. But it is the same nervous temperament
in both cases ; in one the inspiration was too potent for the
means of expression, in the other it has learned to guide and
use them. His early speeches were all written out and com-
mitted to memory. In the Legislature he found the training
he needed. Questions connected with the interests of his con-
stituents and attacks upon his party, repeatedly called him to
address the House, and gave him the confidence needed.
One of Mr. Blaine's earliest public services was a reformer
of abuses. In a series of editorials, he assailed the abuses of
the prison system of the State and arrested public attention,
till finally, in 1859, the Governor, to justify himself, named the
young reformer as Commissioner to examine the prison sys-
tems throughout the country. He did examine and investi-
gate thoroughly the systems of various States, and made an
exhaustive report suggesting changes and reforms, many of
which were permanently adopted.
64 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
The most important of his early speeches was on the pro-
posed pm-chase of Cuba. Mr. Slidell, of Louisiana, introduced
a bill for that purpose, accompanied by an elaborate report
setting forth the necessity of our being possessors of the island.
With Cuba in our hands, he argued, the slave-trade would be
virtually abolished. The bill provided that thirty millions
of dollars be placed in the President's hands to commence
negotiations, and that the whole price paid be not over
$125,000,000.
In the Maine Legislature, Mr. Porter, of Lowell, introduced
a resolution "that our Kepresentatives in Congress be in-
structed to exert their influence and give their votes for any
honorable measure that may be brought forward looking to
the early acquisition of Cuba by the United States." It be-
came widely known through the newspapers that Mr. Blaine
was opposed to these resolves, and, as he said, they advertised
him for the performance. He did not disappoint pubHc ex-
pectation. In a brilliant and masterly oration he pointed out
the extraordinary character and dangerous tendency of the
Slidell bill ; he showed how it broke down the constitutional
safeguards of our Government by giving the whole treaty-making
power to thfe Executive, and by allowing him, at his discre-
tion, to annex territory, form States, and to resolve on peace
or war. Then leaving the narrow question of the Slidell bill,
he stated his own views on the general subject of the acqui-
sition of Cuba, views which we commend to those who fear
that if he become President his foreign policy will be of a
sensational character.
In reference to the general subject of the acquisition of Cuba,
which may be considered as in some sense before the House, I
have a few remarks to offer, and I am frank to confess that " a
good deal may be said on one side of that question, and a good
deal on the other." The acquisition of the island would incor-
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 65
porate into our nation a large number of people differing radi-
cally and essentially from us in race, in language, in religion, in
domestic habits, and in civil institutions. Even with our enor-
mous powers of deglutition, digestion and absorption, our ener-
gies would be taxed to a dangerous extent by the attempt to
make the mixed and mongrel people of that island homogeneous
with our own. Its annexation would also increase to an alarm-
ing extent the influence of the slave power in the government of
this country, and would give them additional strength and pres-
tige in the Senate of the United States, which, as every one
knows, has always been their stronghold, both for offense and
defense. The objections to the acquisition of Cuba, which grew
out of these considerations, are most cogent and pressing, and
certainly of suflBcient weight to restrain the ardor of annexation,
which some of our people might be supposed to cherish when
looking at the subject purely from a commercial standpoint.
On the other hand, there is a very general acquiescence in the
position that our country can never permit any other power to
obtain possession of the island. Such is the well-known and pe-
culiar situation with reference to our own country, that we would
be deaf to the plainest dictates of self-interest if we should per-
mit it to fall under the dominion of either of our great rivals in
Europe. It may, therefore, be considered the settled policy of
this nation to prevent the island of Cuba from being transferred
to any other nation, and I think it is equally the settled policy
not to molest Spain in her peaceful and rightful possession of it.
Every statesman in the country who has been called upon to
affirm the position of our Government on this question, has uni-
formly taken the ground that we should not and would not dis-
turb Spain in her ownership of the island, and that until she was
ready to entertain or propose terms of cession or transfer, it was
not becoming in us to agitate the question. Such are the ex-
pressed and recorded views of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay,
John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, William L. Marcy, and Ed-
ward Everett — six of the most distinguished gentlemen who have
presided over the State Department of this Government. If I
had public documents at hand I could quote the opinions of each
66 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
and all these emiuent men in support of the views I have ad-
vanced. I am able, however, at this time, to call the attention
of the House to an extract from but one of the numerous State
papers to which I have referred, and that is from the letter of
instructions written by Mr. Buchanan when Secretary of State
under Mr. Polk, in 1848, to Mr. Eomulus Saunders, of North
Carolina, then our Minister to Madrid. In that letter Mr. Bu-
chanan, speaking for the Administration, authorized Mr. Saun-
ders to offer one hundred millions of dollars to Spain for the
island, and he accompanied his instructions with a disclaimer of
any design or desire to coerce Spain into the sale. I quote the
following extract from his remarks:
" The fate of this island must ever be deeply interesting to the
people of the United States. We are content that it shall con-
tinue to be a colony of Spain. Whilst in her possession we have
nothing to apprehend. Besides, we are bound to her by the ties
of ancient friendship, and we sincerely desire to render these
perpetual."
Why, then, are we not still content that it shall be a colony of
Spain ? Do we not know, of a verity, that " whilst in her posses-
sion we have nothing to apprehend?" I commend Mr. Bu-
chanan's words in 1848 to his adherents in 1859, and knowing
as they do, that Spain was never so reluctant to part with Cuba
as now — indeed, never so fully determined to hold it as at this
moment — what, I ask, can be the object of agitation on this
subject ?
Nothing can be more statesman-like than this declaration of
opinion, and nothing in Mr. Blaine's subsequent career leads
us to suppose he has changed in mature life the sentiments he
uttered in youth, in the midst of considerable agitation, and
when he had none of the responsibilities of office — ^responsi-
bilities which sober even the most impulsive of men. We can-
not but admire the calm sagacity that dictated the lan-
guage just quoted to a young and ambitious man in a time of
popular excitement. We have no reason to conjecture that Mr.
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 67
Blaine, in 1884, thinks otherwise than he thought in February,
1859.
In the winter of this year, the black cloud that had so long
hung over the country grew darker and more lowering. The
Harper's Ferry affair had enraged the South ; a large section
of the North regarded John Brown as a martyr, while President
Buchanan in his message urged the cultivation of national
forbearance. Nearly everybody in Congress who could speak
delivered himself on the exciting topic of slavery, and Seward,
as spokesman of the Republicans, made it evident that if they
elected a Eepublican President, Southern supremacy was gone
forever. Jefferson Davis and other Southern orators fiercely
threatened the dissolution of the Union if they were in a
minority, while Douglas rode his hobby of popular sovereignty
to his heart's content. More than ordinary violence and dis-
order reigned in the House, and the Administration of Buchanan
was severely censured by the House. A general anxiety
pervaded the country when the party conventions met. In all
this period of disturbance Mr. Blaine was a prominent actor,
and when the great Republican Convention met at Chicago, in
1860, his own sincere, patriotic, and straightforward mind was
powerfully attracted by the simple directness and the tremen-
dous sincerity of Mr. Lincoln, He had been a witness and
correspondent during those remarkable debates between Mr.
Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, which had swept the whole horizon
of political disputes, and filled Illinois and remoter States with
the fame of the great disputants. He had even during that
campaign made the remarkable prediction that Mr. Douglas
would defeat Mr. Lincoln for the Senatorship of Illinois, but
that Mr. Lincoln, in 1860, would defeat Mr. Douglas for the
Presidency of the United States. No one who has read it can
ever forget the skill and power with which Mr. Blaine in his
later history has outlined the features of that mighty debate.
68 BIOGEAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAtN^.
With a master hand, in a few lines swift and strong, as a
painter would throw a face on his canvas, he shows us the two
great leaders, as they step out in front of the contending
parties to do intellectual battle. No clearer reading nor more
brilliant drawing of character can be found in his whole his-
tory than the following :
The contest that ensued was memorable. Douglas had a
herculean task before him. The Eepublican party was strong,
united, conscious of its power, popular, growing.
The Democratic party was rent with faction, and the Ad-
ministration was irrevocably opposed to the return of Douglas to
the Senate. He entered the field, therefore, with a powerful
opponent in front, and with defection and betrayal in the rear.
He was everywhere known as a debater of singular skill. His
mind was fertile in resources. He was master of logic. No man
perceived more quickly than he the strength or weakness of an
argument, and no one excelled him in the use of sophistry and
fallacy.
Where he could not elucidate a point to his own advantage,
he would fatally becloud it for his opponent. In that peculiar
style of debate which, in its intensity, resembles a physical com-
bat, he had no equal. He spoke with extraordinary readiness.
There was no halting in his phrase. He used good English,
terse, vigorous, pointed. He disregarded the adornments of
rhetoric — rarely used a simile.
He was utterly destitute of humor, and had slight appreciation
of wit. He never cited historical precedents, except from the
domain of American policies. Inside that field his knowledge
was comprehensive, minute, critical. Beyond it his learning
was limited. He was not a reader. His recreations were not
in literature. In the whole range of his voluminary speaking it
would be difficult either to find a line of poetry or a classical
allusion. But he was by nature an orator, and by long practice
a debater. He could lead a crowd almost irresistibly to his own
conclusions. He could, if he wished, incite a mob to desperate
deeds.
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATtJBE. 69
He was, in short, an able, audacious, almost unconquerable
opponent in public discussion.
It would have been impossible to find any man of the same
type able to meet him before the people of Illinois. Whoever
attempted it would probably have been destroyed in the first en-
counter. But the man who was chosen to meet him, who chal-
lenged him to the combat, was radically different in every phase
of character. Scarcely could two men be more unlike, in moral
and mental constitution, than Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A.
Douglas. Mr. Lincoln was calm and philosophic. He loved the
truth for truth's sake. He would not argue from a false premise,
or be deceived himself, or deceive others by a false conclusion.
He had pondered deeply on the issues which aroused him to
action. He had given anxious thought to the problems of free
government and to the destiny of the Republic. He had for him-
self marked out a path of duty, and he walked in it fearlessly.
His mental processes were slower, but more profound than those
of Douglas. He did not seek to say merely the thing which was
best for that day's debate, but the thing which would stand the
test of time and square itself with eternal justice. He wished
nothing to appear white unless it was white. His logic was
severe and faultless. He did not resort to fallacy, and could
detect it in his opponent, and expose it with merciless directness.
He had an abounding sense of humor, and always employed it
in the illustration of his argument — ^never for the mere sake of
provoking merriment. In this respect he had the wonderful
aptness of Franklin. He often taught a great truth with the
felicitous brevity of an ^sop Fable. His words did not fall in
an impetuous torrent as did those of Douglas, but they were al-
ways well chosen, deliberate, and conclusive.
Thus fitted for the contest, these men proceeded to a discus-
sion which at the time was so interesting as to enchain the at-
tention of the Nation — in its immediate effect so striking as to
affect the organization of parties, in its subsequent effect so power-
ful as to change the fate of millions."
Mr Blaine was about to see the fulfillment of his own
70 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
prophecy, and to lend effective aid to the nomination of Mr.
Lincoln. He was one of the delegates to the Convention, and
threw himself with ardor into the campaign, and ever after-
wards, in the struggles of the war, and in the contest for re-
nomination in 1864, he was at times a confidential adviser of
the President, and always his steadfast friend. In the dark
days which followed Mr. Lincoln's election, Mr. Blaine's voice
and action in legislation and out of it was a very trumpet call
to duty and patriotism.
A speech never to be forgotten was the one delivered by
him on the 7th of February, 1862, on the resolutions sent
down by the State Senate to the House for concurrence, en-
dorsing the Administration of Abraham Lincoln, and stating
" that it is the duty of Congress to provide for the confiscation
of the estates of the rebels and the liberation of their slaves,
and for accepting the services of all able-bodied men, of what-
ever status, as military necessity may require." These resolu-
tions found an opponent in Mr. Gould, of Thomaston, who
made an elaborate argument against them. To him Blaine
replied. He discussed the question in two phases — first, as to
the power of Congress to adopt such measures ; secondly, as
to the expediency of adopting them. He denied that the war
power in this Government is lodged wholly in the President ;
he held with Hamilton, and all constitutional lawyers, from
Marshall to Webster, that Congress had no limitation on its
authority to provide for the common defense in any manner.
At the origin of our Government, Mr. Chairman, the people
were jealous of their liberties ; they gave power guardedly tmd
grudgingly to their rulers ; they were hostile, above all things, to
what is termed the one-man power, and you cannot but observe
with what pecuhar care they provided against the abuse of the
war power. For after giving Congress the power " to declare
war, and to raise and support armies," they added in the Con-
ROMAi^ CATHOLIC CHURCH AT BROWIfSVILLE, PA., AND THE CEMETERY
WHERE BLAINE'S PARENTS ARE BURIED.
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 73
stitution these remarkable and emphatic words, " but no appro-
priation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two
years/' which is precisely the period for which the Eepresentatives
in the popular branch are chosen. Thus, sir, this power was not
given to Congress simply, but in effect it was given to the House
of Eepresentatives ; the people placing it where they, could lay
their hands directly upon it at every biennial election, and say
" yes " or " no " to the principles or policy of any war.
In all that I am thus maintaining in regard to the supreme
war power of Congress, I make no conflict between that and the
Executive power, which in war, as well as in all matters of civil
administration, belongs to the President. The question at issue
between the gentleman from Thomaston and myself is not
whether the President has power of great magnitude in the con-
duct of a war, for that I readily admit, or rather I stoutly affirm ;
but the point at issue is, which is superior in authority. Congress
or the President? I think I have shown that the Constitution
vests the supreme unlimited power in Congress, and that the
President must obey the direction of Congress, as the chief ex-
ecutive officer of the nation, and at the same time he must be
held accountable for the mode in which his subordinate officers
execute the trusts confided to them.
Mr. Gould had denied the existence of a civil war, and that
the rebels had, therefore, full right to the protection of prop-
erty, guaranteed by the Constitution, and could only be de-
prived of it by due process of law. Blaine scornfully rejoins :
To assume the ground of the gentleman from Thomaston
with its legitimate sequences, is practically to give up the con-
test. For he tells yon, and he certainly repeated it a score of
times, that you cannot deprive these rebels of their property ex-
cept "by due process of law," and at the same time he confesses
that within the rebel territory it is impossible to serve any pro-
cess or enforce any verdict. He at the same time declares that
we have not belligerent rights because the contest is not a civil
war. Pray, what kind of a war is it ? The gentleman acknowl-
edges that the rebels are traitors, and if so they must be engaged
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BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 75
tration, yet that oyer it and under it and outside of it and above
it there is engraven on the hearts of this people that God-given
right, that great precept of nature, " Save thyself ! " And I
maintain, sir, that the great law pf self-preservation which in
the individual knows no limit but necessity, is even stronger in
a nation, by as much as the interests and importance of a nation
transcend those of an individual. In the magnificent paragraph
which I quote from Mr. Hamilton, this self-evident truth is thus
tersely enunciated : " The circumstances that endanger the safety
of nations are infinite ; and for this reason no constitutional
shachles can be wisely imposed on the power to which the care
of it is committed." I have now, sir, at somewhat greater length
than I designed when I rose, discussed the question of constitu-
tional power, so far as it is brought into issue by the pending
resolves. I have endeavored to establish as essential to the main-
tenance of my position two propositions: First, that the war
power of this Government is lodged in Congress ; and second,
that under every principle and every precedent of international
law the Government of the United States, while sovereign over
all, has, so long as the rebellion endures, all the rights of war
against those who in armed force are seeking the life of the
nation. The first resolve, endorsing the Administration in gen-
eral terms, is, I believe, not objected to in any quai'ter, and is
not in dispute between the gentleman from Thomaston and
myself. The only objection I have to it, is that it is cold and
stiff and formal, whereas to reflect my feelings it should be warm
and cordial and unreserved. I am for the Administration
through and through — being an early and unflinching believer
in the ability, the honesty and patriotism of Abraham Lincoln,
I did in my humble sphere, both with pen and tongue, all I
could to promote his election.
Then passing to the third resolution, respecting the military
employment of negroes, Mr. Blaine said :
The resolution must be taken and Judged by itself — its own
words. It simply declares that the services of all men should be
accepted — this implies that the service is previously offered, and
76 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
expressly negatives the idea of calling on the negroes " to rise."
It further says, that these men should be employed as "military
necessity and the safety of the Republic may demand." I do not
anticipate that any necessity will arise for arming the slaves, and
as at present advised, I would not vote for a resolution recom-
mending that step. But there are a thousand things which the
negroes may do, which would greatly lighten the labors of our
brave brethren in the ranks of the National army. They may dig
trenches, throw up embankments, labor on fortifications, aid in
transporting baggage, and make themselves " generally useful."
But in conclusion, after thus demonstrating that these
proposed measures proposed nothing which may not ,be
properly done under the Constitution, that they were mod-
erate, conservative and well-guarded, and after expressing his
conviction that the rebellion would be subdued without
resorting to extra constitutional measures, he assumed a
loftier tone. Like all true patriots in the supreme moments
of the country's danger, he felt that there was something far
higher than mere constitutional formulas, something far more
precious than mere observance of the letter of the law. In
politics, as in religion, it is the letter that killeth, the spirit
that maketh alive, and Mr. Blaine boldly avowed his will-
ingness to disregard the former but observe the latter.
But lest the gentleman should infer that I shrink fi'om the
logical consequences of some propositions which I have laid
down as ultimate steps, I tell him boldly that if the Hfe of the
nation seemed to demand the violation of the Constitution, I
would violate it, and in taking this ground I am but repeating
the expression of President Lincoln in his message, when he
declars',' ^'^at "it were better to violate one provision than that
all should perish." And I will give a higher and more venerable
authority than President Lincoln, for the same doctrine. No
less a personage than Thomas Jefferson wrote the following
sentiments in a letter to J. K. Calvin, from his retirement at
BLAINE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 77
Monticello, September 22, 1810 : " The question you propose,
whether circumstances do not sometimes occur, which make it a
duty, in ofl&cers of high trust, to assume authorities beyond the
law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes embarrassing
in practice. A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless
one of the high duties of a good citizen ; but it is not the Jiighest.
The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country
when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country
by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the
law itself, with life, liberty, property, and all those who are
enjoying them with us ; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the
means." This doctrine cuts right athwart, and scatters to the
four winds of heaven the whole argument of the gentleman. He
sticks to forms ; I go for substance. He sacrifices the end to
the means ; I stand ready to use the means essential to the end.
I stand with, or rather follow after, Jefferson and Lincoln ; he
assumes a ground which both of those statesmen have denounced
and execrated.
I read in the President's Message something more than a great
proposition for compensated emancipation. I read in it a declara-
tion as plain as language can make it, that resolute measures
may be deemed necessary to crush out the rebellion speedily and
effectually, will be unhesitatingly adopted.
Who can tell how powerfully these noble speeches strength-
ened the hands of the Government at Washington ? They
proved that in all sections of our country there were men
whose hearts were in the right place, who saw clearly the errors
to be avoided and the remedies to be applied, and who, care-
less of all things but their duty to the people, were willing to
make any sacrifices.
Mr. Blaine was four times elected to the Legislature of his
State, and in the beginning of his third term was elected
Speaker, an office he held in his fourth term also. During
these eventful years in the history of the nation, when a large
and powerful party within our lines was laboring to restrain
78 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
the action of the Federal Government, and expressing a modi-
fied sympathy for the rebellion, Blaine was one of the noble
band who stood firm from first to last, and lent all his powers
and influence to guide the nation into a harbor of safety. In
the Chair of the Maine house of legislation Mr. Blaine learned
by experience the art of ruling men. It is no easy task at any
time to preside over the deliberations of a legislature ; it re-
quires a knowledge of men and of measures, statesmanship to
deal with the latter and consummate tact with the former ;
how arduous must it have been to guide and moderate the
course of legislation in a time that so tried the hearts of men,
when neither weakness nor passion had any part to play, and
when the country was to be saved !
The experience gained in Maine was soon to be repeated in
a larger scene. In 1862, on the resignation of the representa-
tion of Augusta district in Congress by Aaron P. Morrill, the
choice of the people sent James G. Blaine to Washington. Be-
fore the Convention met it was clear that he was the man whom
the constituency, one of the most intelligent, disinterested, and
patriotic in the country, would elect to represent it in this
crisis of our history. The speeches he had made had revealed
a breadth of view and a statesmanship worthy of any legislative
assembly and of any period of our national annals. Mr. Blaine
had been calm, sagacious, far-seeing, yet at the same time reso-
lute to observe the limits of the Constitution, and active in
urging all necessary measures. Homes of thousands had been
rendered desolate by war, every family felt the pressure of
taxation. The nation was in that state of excitement which
has often produced infractions of liberty. Strong heads and
cool heads were needed in council ; the best men were sent to
Congress, without reference to local questions or factional prej-
udice. Among these best men, James Gillespie Blaine was
not the least conspicuous.
CfiAPfEE V.
SlaIne's first term in congress.
The first term in Congress.^His address to the Convention.— His contem-
poraries.— Service on Committees. — His support of Lincoln. — Tilts with
S. S. Cox.— Free Trade.— Protected Ststtes.— Blaine of Maitie. — Negro
troops. — Their bravery. — Ought they to be retained ?— Animated debate
with S. S. Cox.
rriHE election of Mr, Blaine to represent his State in the
-L great council of the Nation at Washington was trium-
phant, his majority being over three thousand. In the address
to the Convention that nominated him, he had clearly stated
his views of the first duty of the Government at that terrible
time. "The first object with us all is to overthrow the
rebellion, speedily, effectually, and finally. In our march to
the end we want to crush all intervening obstacles. If slavery
or any other institution appears in the way, it must be re-
moved. Perish all things else, the National life must be
saved." These are but a repetition of the sentiments he had
expressed in the House of Legislature, and that he had often
repeated in Congress, where opposition to the conduct of the
war was more open than it had ever been in the loyal Pine
Tree State, Mr. Blaine entered the halls of our National
assembly, pledged to stand heartily by the Administration
of Abraham Lincoln and to support his policy.
Mr. Blaine set to work in earnest to qualify himself to take
a prominent part in the conduct of affairs. He devoted him-
self zealously to the work of the committees on which he was
80 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
appointed to serve, and soon proved that he had mastered the
subjects before them thoroughly. Service on committees is
too often overlooked by superficial judges of a politician's
career ; the labor in them is obscure and not calculated to
dazzle the multitude like brilliant displays of oratory. Yet,
we must remember that it is in the committees that the work
of Congress is done ; in them the facts are collected, the
inquiries made, and the plans drafted on which formal legis-
lation is based ; from them all measures spring, and by
them every detail is settled. In the committee-room there
is a business atmosphere, and nothing but hard common
sense is heard. When Mr. Blaine had gained a reputation
among his colleagues on committees for careful and exhaust-
ive study of all questions brought before him, he was con-
sulted by intelligent and observing men outside of the com-
mittee-rooms, as an authority whose judgment could not be
blinded and whose conduct was beyond impeachment. In
those dangerous times when the fate of armies, nay, even of
the Natioil, was in the balance, such qualities as Mr. Blaine
displayed were of higher value to the country than mere
resounding displays of eloquence. Perhaps the most im-
portant committees on which Mr. Blaine served at this early
period were those on Militia and on Post Offices, to which he
had been appointed by Speaker Colfax. He did not speak
often, and his words were always weighty when some, subject
of importance called him to address the Chair ; the motions
lie made and the objections he offered were always effective
and well considered, and in this respect his training as
Speaker of the Maine Legislature was of inestimable value ;
it had given him a perfect knowledge of that most difficult
subject, Parliamentary Law, and thus he could see at once
when a motion or a point of order would accomplish more
than an eloquent speech.
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BLAINE'S FIEST TERM IN CONGRESS. 83
His personal influence was not at first felt so mucli as that
of some of the more demonstrative members who, with him,
made in this year their appearance in National politics, but it
steadily increased as his acquaintance with his colleagues ex-
tended. His knowledge of debate, his mastery of facts, his
broad judgment, soon told on his associates, and he was recog-
nized as one of the master minds of the Legislature. Among
those who sat with him in his first term were Elihu B, Wash-
burn, W. S. Holman, Dan W. Voorhees, Godlove S. Orth,
Schuyler Colfax, Oakes Ames, W. R. Morrison, J. A. Kasson,
W. Windom, James F. Wilson, S. S. Cox, Henry L. Dawes,
George S. Boutwell, Foster E. Fenton, M. Eussell Thayer,
Thaddeus Stevens, James Brooks, George H. Pendleton,
James A. Garfield, and others well known to fame, who gladly
extended the hand of welcome to the experienced parliament-
arian from Maine.
The excitement in which the Nation lived was intensified
within the walls of Congress. News of battle came in, telling
of glorious victory or terrible defeat ; in either case calling for
immediate action by the Legislature, and laying on them fresh
responsibilities. Important measures such as had never en-
tered before into the consideration of perhaps any legislative
body in the world had to be taken, and they had to be carried
by arguments based on sound reason, not arrays of precedents.
Such- were the question of the slaves held by or escaping from
the rebels, the negotiations with the Confederate chiefs, the
treatment of traitors, and the status of prisoners of war ; such
were the issue of paper money, the construction of a navy, the
drafting of men into the army, the public debt, and, above all
and through all, the ever present question of the emancipation
of the slaves. Here, indeed, in this bald enumeration, was
work for an army of statesmen. How nobly they accomplished
it, history tells and will tell to our latest posterity; and in all
84 BIOGEAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
this labor Blaine was no indifferent sharer. On every question
he went repeatedly on record, and it may be said to his honor,
that of all the votes he gave and of all the measures he advo-
cated, every one was, either at once or since, approved by the
Nation, such was the consummate foresight he displayed.
" Dare to do right" was Blaine's motto, "and leave the rest
to infinite wisdom."
During his first term of service, Mr. Blaine made some
speeches which excited universal attention. Like all his ad-
dresses, they were strictly devoted to the subject before the
House ; they contained statements of universal truths, and
expressed views of policy as sound to-day as they were when
uttered. It may, indeed, be said that from Mr. Blaine's
speeches can be extracted a whole system of political wisdom,
for he bases his every argument on eternal principles.
To the doctrines of free trade Mr. Blaine gave attentive ex-
amination, and a speech in its favor by Mr. S. S. Cox, in
which he described New England as consisting of " protected
States," called forth from Blaine a defense of his own State
of Maine.
It has grown to be a habit in this House, Mr. Chairman, to
speak of New England as a unit, and in assailing the New Eng-
land States to class them together, as has been done to-day, by
the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Cox), throughout his entire
speech. In response to such attacks, each particular Eepresent-
ative from a New England State might feel called upon to
defend the whole section. For myself, sir, I take a different
view. I have the honor to represent in part one State, the State
of Maine, and I have no more to do with the local and particular
interests of the rest of New England than with any other State ,
in the Union. The other New England States are ably repre-
sented on the floor, and it would be ofiicious and arrogant in me
to speak for them. But when the gentleman from Ohio pre-
BLAINE'S FIRST TERM IN CONGRESS. 85
sumes to charge here that the State I represent receives from
Federal legislation any undue protection to her local interests,
he either ignorantly or willfully misrepresents the case so grossly,
that for ten minutes I will occupy the attention of this House in
correcting him.
Sir, I am tired, of such talk as the gentleman from Ohio has
indulged in to-day, and in so far as it includes my own State as
being a pensioner upon the General Grovernment, or dependent
upon the bounty of any other State, I hurl back the charge with
scorn. If there be a State in this Union that can say with truth
that her Federal connection confers no special benefit of a mate-
rial character, that State is Maine. And yet, sir, no State is
more attached to the Federal Union than Maine. Her affection
and her pride are centered in the Union, and God knows she has
contributed of her best blood and treasure without stint in sup-
porting the war for the Union ; and she will do so to the end.
But she resents, and I, speaking for her, resent the insinuation
that she derives any undue advantage from Federal legislation,
or that she gets a single dollar she does not pay back.
This much, sir, I have felt called upon to say in response to
the elaborate and carefully prepared speech of the gentleman
from Ohio. I have spoken in vindication of a State that is as
independent and as proud as any within the limits of the Union.
I have spoken for a people as high-toned and as honorable as can
be found in the wide world. I have spoken for a particular class
— many of them my constituents — who are as manly and as
brave as ever faced the ocean's storm. And so long, sir, as I
have a seat on this floor, the State of Maine shall not be slandered
by the gentleman from Ohio, or by gentlemen from any other
State.
From this gallant defense of his State, it will be seen that
the term " Blaine of Maine " expresses a closer connection,
■and warmer attachment, than such designation of a member
usually implies.
The slave question was, of course, one that early excited
86 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
debate. Blaine advocated their enlistment into our armies.
Mr. Mallory, of Kentucky, accused the negro troops of coward-
ice. " My friend from Maine," he said, " who seems to be lis-
tening so attentively, lived in Kentucky once, and knows the
negro and his attributes, and he knows, if he will tell you wbat
he knows, that they won't fight."
Mr. Blaine — From a residence of five years in Kentucky I
came to the conclusion from what I saw of the negroes that there
was a great deal of fight in them. I have entire faith — and if I
had not, I would never vote a dollar of appropriation for these
negro troops — that well-trained and disciplined negroes will make
good troops. I do not believe they will make as good troops as
white men, and I do not value any white man's opinion who does
think so. * * * Now I ask the gentleman from Kentucky
if he believes that a thousand white men, of the Kentucky race
— and I believe that no more gallant race than the Kentuckians
ever lived — unarmed and undrilled, would have stood any better
before the rebel musketry than the negroes themselves did.
On the same session a debate on the restoration of slaves to
their owners took place. It is worth quoting as a specimen
of Mr. Blaine's force in debate, his readiness of retort and
skill in fence, when matched with an antagonist like S. S.
Cox.
" The laws of the United States," said Mr. Blaine, " now allow
the enlistment of negroes, and there are a great many slaves of
Union men in the service."
Mr. Cox — Come to the question ; I want the question, but do
not make it too sharp.
Mr. Blaine — Those negroes are regularly enlisted in the army,
and I want to know if the gentleman would return them to their
alleged owners ? Do not dodge the question by saying that the
commissioner will decide the case when it arises. Here is a negro
in the ranks of the army, belonging to a loyal owner. Would he
BLAINE'S FIRST TERM IN CONGRESS. 87
return that negro to his master? I do not want the gentleman
to go off and say that the commissioner would decide so and so ;
I wish him to give the House his own view of the law.
Mr. Cox— The gentleman does not want me to answer the
question except just as he wishes I should.
Mr. Blaine — I want you to answer yes or no,
Mr. Cox— Learn to put your question directly, without pref-
ace.
Mr. Blaine— Would the gentleman return to a loyal owner his
slave, found in the ranks of the Union army, fighting for the
preservation of the Government ? Is that direct enough for the
impatient gentleman ?
Mr. Cox— I would return any slave stolen from his legal
master, and let that slave take the consequences of the military
law.
Mr. Blaine— I hear the answer of the gentleman from Ohio, hut
I cannot catch its meaning.
Mr. Cox— And I guess that very few people ever catch their
slaves under present circumstances. [Laughter.]
Mr. Blaine— Then I understand the gentleman to say that
unless the slave be stolen he would not return him ?
Mr. Cox If I were a commissioner, under the law, I would
return every man whom the law required to be returned.
Mr. Blaine— But does the law require a man to be returned
who is in the ranks of the Union army? The gentleman skill-
fully attempts to evade that question.
Mr. Cox— The gentleman skillfully puts a question, and dog-
gedly shuts his ears to the answer. The law was never made in
view of a condition of things like the present.
Mr. Blaine— Then I understand the gentleman to say that he
would return men to slavery from the ranks of the Union army ?
Mr. Cox— I would return any man now in arms who has been
wrongfully taken from his master, and then I would let the
proper tribunal decide whether he properly belonged to the
military service or not.
Mr. Blaine— Are the men who are in the army wrongfully
taken?
88 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr. Cox — I ask the gentleman that. Were they wrongfully
taken ?
Mr. Blaine — No, sir.
Mr. Cox— Then I have nothing more to say to the gentleman
on that point. The answer is obvious.
Mr. Blaine — Yes, but obvious as the answer may be, the gen-
tleman fails to give it. But I will put another question. Sup-
pose a runaway slave, one not taken by law from his master,
enlists and is found in the ranks of the Union army, and is
claimed as a fugitive slave, what does he think about that?
Mr. Cox — I will tell the gentleman what I think about it. I
opposed putting the black men in the army in the first place. I
said there would be trouble about the exchange of prisoners. I
warned the House against that policy earnestly, in the interest of
our white soldiers, who have been kept in prison by reason of
this infamous military policy as to black soldiers. I do not
believe the army has been strengthened one jot or tittle by the
black men. I believe they are a positive weakness to the Union
army and the Union cause. General Grant does not use them.
He does not put them in the front; He does not fight them.
He knows their worth or worthlessness. He uses them where he
can, but takes care where he places them.
Mr. Blaine — Let me tell the gentleman that there are more
than one hundred and fifty wounded negroes in one hospital at
Fortress Monroe.
Mr. Cox — The gentleman may find one hundred and fifty
blacks wounded out of one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers.
They were with Butler. The wonder is that any escaped. But
General Grant is too skillful and able a general to put himself
and black men against General Lee and his white men.
Mr. Blaine — I do not see the pertinency of that to my question.
Mr. Cox — I will show the gentleman. I would be willing to
let the black soldiers in our army be taken home to their loyal
owners, and if the war must go on, leave to the white men the
honor and duty of carrying on the war for the constitutional
liberties of white men.
Mr. Blaine — Precisely; but I still fail to see the pertinency of
Blaine's first term in congress. 89
the gentleman's harangue. I recognize in it the sentiment and
the phrases of a stump speech, which I had the pleasure of hear-
ing from him more than once before. But it has no relevancy
to my question.
Mr. Cox — The gentleman is mistaken. I never discussed the
subject-matter of this question before in my life. He imagines it
to be a stump speech, because, in his familiar parlance, it is a
stumper to him. True, I gave him a general answer.
Mr. Blaine — Quite a general one.
Mr. Cox — Then I will not yield any further. If I cannot make
him understand, it is not my fault.
Mr. Blaine — Not at all.
Mr. Cox — I do not think the gentleman is so stupid as that he
cannot understand it. The trouble is, he does not want to un-
derstand it.
Mr. Blaine — I understand distinctly that the gentleman does
not wish to give me a direct answer.
The professed jester of the House, as Mr. S. S. Cox has
striven to become, had no victory to boast of in the encounter,
either for his jokes or his argument.
CHAPTER VI.
BLAINE'S SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS.
His letter of acceptance: "We must preserve the Union." — Service on
Committees. — Debate with Conkling. — The struggle for supremacy. —
Reimbursement of the war expenses of the loyal States. — Export duty
vs. Excise. — Eloquent picture of the country's future. — Maintenance of
the National credit.
"TTT'HEN the fall elections of 1864 were to take place,
VV there was no doubt about one of the Representatives
from Maine. His gallant defense of his State, his devotion to
national business, his outspoken sentiments on national ques-
tions, insured Blaine's renomination and his triumphant
return. He addressed a letter of acceptance to the Conven-
tion, and his own words show clearly what the great issues
before the people were, and how he, the candidate, regrrded
them :
Augusta, Aug. 20th, 1864.
Gen. J. R. Bachelder:
Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your favor formally advisipg me
that on the 10th inst., the Union Convention of the Third Dis-
trict unanimously nominated me for re-election as Representative
in Congress. For this generous action, as well as for the cordial
manner attending it, and the very complimentary phrase in
which it is conveyed, I am under profound obligations. It is far
easier for me to find the inspiring cause of such favor and such
unanimity in the personal partiality of friends, than in any merits
or services which I may justly claim as my own.
In nominating me as the Union candidate, and pledging me
to no other platform, you place me on the precise ground I desire
Blaine's second term in congress. 93
to occupy. The controlling and absorbing issue before the Ameri-
can people is whether the Federal Union shall be saved or lost.
In comparison with that, all other issues and controversies are
subordinate, and entitled to consideration just in the degree that
they may influence the end which Washington declared to be
" the primary object of patriotic desire." To maintain the Union
a gigantic war has been carried on, now in the fourth year of its
duration, and the resources of the country, both in men and
money, have been freely expended in support of it. The war was
not a matter of choice with the Government, unless it was pre-
pared to surrender its power over one-half of its territory and
incur all the hazards of anarchy throughout the other half. It was
begun by those who sought to overthrow the Federal authority.
It should be ended the very day that authority is recognized and
re-established throughout its rightful domain.
The desire for peace after the sufferings and trials of the past
three years is natural. Springing from the very instincts of
humanity it is irrepressible. The danger to be avoided is that in
aiming to attain peace we shall be deceived by the shadow and
thus fail to secure the substance. Peace on the basis of disunion
is a delusion. It is no peace at all. It is but the beginning of
war — more wasteful, more destructive, more cruel than we have
thus far experienced. Those who cry for the "immediate cessa-
tion of the war" are the best advocates of its endless continuance.
They mean peace by the recognition of Eebel Independence, and
Eebel Independence is absolutely incompatible with peace.
Among the cherished errors of those who are willing to ac-
knowledge the Southern Confederacy as the basis of peace, the
most fatal is that which assumes the continued union, harmony,
and power of the loyal States. This cannot be. Contentions
and strifes without number would at once spring up. The border
States would be convulsed with a fierce contest as to which sec-
tion they would adhere to. The Pacific slope, to escape the dan-
gers and constant embroilments which it could neither control
nor avoid, would naturally seek for independence ; and the North-
west, if it did not follow the example, would demand such a
reconstruction of the government of the remaining States, as
94 BIOGBAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
•would make our further connection therewith undesirable, if not
absolutely intolerable. In short, disunion upon the line of the
revolted States would involve the total and speedy disintegration
of the Federal Government, and we would find ourselves launched
on "a sea of troubles," with no pilot capable of holding the helm,
and no chart to guide us on our perilous voyage.
There is indeed but one path of safety, and that is likewise the
path of honor and of interest. We must preserve the Union.
Differ as we may as to the measures necessary to that end, there
shall be no difference among loyal men as to the end itself. No
sacrifice we can make in our efforts to save the Union is compar-
able with that we should all make in losing it. He is the enemy
to both sections and to the common cause of humanity and civil-
ization, who is willing to conclude the war by surrendering the
Union; and the most alarming development of the times is the
disposition manifested by leading journals, by public men, and by
political conventions in the loyal States to accept this conclusion.
For myself, in the limited sphere of my influence I shall never
consent to such a delusive settlement of our troubles. Neither
at the polls as an American citizen, nor in Congress as a Repre-
sentative (should I again be chosen), will I ever give a vote admit-
ting even the possibility of ultimate failure in this great struggle
for Nationality.
Very respectfully your obd't servant,
J. G. Blain^e.
The first term of Mr. Blaine had been for him a term of
study. He had to learn " the ropes," as sailors say ; he had
to learn the tempers and prejudices, the good and the bad
points of those with whom he had to deal, and he had also to
study that under-current of politics which only comes into
the public notice when it breaks upon the shore. Long before
the journals can speak of it, long before it can be discussed in
Congress, the great question is felt to be in the background,
an ocean swell which politicians can only watch with the hope
that the^ may so arrange their matters as not to be swept
BLAINE'S SECOKI) TERM IN CONGRESS. 95
away when the tidal wave of the popular excitement dashes
-on them. In this Congress he again occupied a position on
the Committee on Military Affairs and on the Committee on
War Debts of Loyal States. In the deliberations of both
these committees he took a prominent share, but in the latter
especially he was at once the originator of the proposition to
reimburse the loyal States for their war expenses and the
champion who brought it to a successful issue. His advocacy
of this measure and the eloquence and command of resources
he displayed in urging it through Congress stamped him as a
leader. Indeed, from this time he held the predominant
position in his party, which has never been challenged since.
It was challenged once by Hon. Roscoe Conkling ; the con-
troversy was really for the leadership of the party, though
nominally about General Fry, the Provost-Marshal-G-eneral,
whom Conkling attacked and Blaine defended. Both men
entered into the contest as into a personal strife, and the de-
bate was on both sides one of the most caustic and personal in
the language used that has ever been listened to in a House
not unaccustomed to wordy warfare and oratorical assaults.
It would be unjust to say that General Fry was forgotten in
the melee, but it is certain, on reading the debate, that each
champion saw that his political salvation was to crush his
enemy. From this date we can trace the feud between the
two men. At present Blaine seems to be the victor. In
this chapter, where we seek to give an account of Mr. Blaine
as a statesman, we need say nothing further on this struggle,
which left Mr. Blaine without a rival to challenge his su-
premacy in the party.
The measure for reimbursing the loyal States for their war
expenses was the occasion of a masterly speech by Mr. Blaine.
In a Committee of the Whole House, April 12, 1864, on a
special order to reimburse the State of Pennsylvania for its ex-
96 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
penses in calling out the militia during the invasion of that
State by the Confederate armies, Mr. Blaine moved to sub-
stitute for the bill introduced by Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania,
a bill to reimburse all the loyal States for the charges they
had incurred. He had in the preceding January called the
attention of the House to this subject by submitting a resolu-
tion, and now he desired the action of the House on the bill
proposed. There had been, he urged, a legitimate expend-
iture in all the States for the purpose of suppressing the
rebellion ; these expenditures were necessary and made in good
faith for the defense and preservation of the national life, and
should be refunded by the National Government. Such reim-
bursement was just and expedient, and ought to come from
the National Treasury.
If the twenty-four loyal States, now striving, with patriotic
rivalry, to outdo each other in defending and rescuing the nation
from its perils, were hereafter to constitute the entire Union,
there might be nothing gained and nothing lost to any one of
them, by consolidating their respective war debts into one com-
mon charge upon the aggregate resources of the nation. Under
such circumstances each State would be freed from an individual
tax only to incur a burden of similar magnitude in meeting its
component part of the total national debt. But the actual case,
presented for our consideration and decision, is far different from
this. We are engaged in a struggle which must inevitably result
in restoring to loyalty, and to duty, eleven States now in rebel-
lion against the authority of the National Government. And
beyond that, as a consequence of a restored Union, and of the
boundless prosperity which awaits the auspicious event, our vast
Western domain will be peopled with a rapidity exceeding all
precedent, and States without number almost will spring into
existence, to add to the strength and insure the perpetuity of our
Government. Well-considered estimates based on past progress,
and the established ratio of our advance in wealth and popula-
tion, assure us that within less than a century from this time we
Blaine's second term in congress. 97
shall have added forty new States to our Union, making, with
the number now composing it, a grand total of seventy-five pros-
perous Commonwealths. Were it not for the blood so freely
poured out, and the treasure so lavishly expended by the twenty-
four loyal States represented on this floor, the eleven States now
in revolt would not be saved from self-destruction, and the forty
States so speedily to grow up in the Mississippi valley and on the
Pacific slope would never come into existence.
Of the immense national debt which we are incurring in this
struggle, each State will, of course, have to bear a share ; but it
is quite manifest that for two generations to come, owing to our
established system of taxation, the present loyal States will have
to endure vastly the larger proportion of the total burden. Is it
fair or just, that in addition to this they shall each be called upon
to bear, unaided, a large local debt, necessarily, and yet gener-
ously, incurred in aid of the one common object of preserving
the life of the whole nation? The question which I present,
therefore, is not one for dispute or difference between any of the
States here represented, for they all have a common interest in
adopting the proposed measure. The financial issue is rather
between the twenty-four loyal States on the one hand, and the
eleven revolted States, together with all future new States, on
the other. We have it in our power to-day to determine the
matter upon principles of the highest equity, and at the same
time for the interest of the loyal States, who are bearing the heat
and burden of the great contest.
Such had been the course adopted by the fathers of the Re-
public after the Revolutionary War, not without thorough
discussion by the great statesmen of the day. It must not be
urged, he said, that the Nation could not bear the additional
burden of debt which such reimbursements would entail ; the
Nation could bear a far greater burden.
The war closing in July, 1865, will leave us in this condition :
a nation numbering some thirty-three millions of people, owning
over sixteen thousand millions of property, and carrying a debt
98 BIOGRAPHY Ot HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
of twenty-five hundred millions of dollars. The proportion be-
tween debt and property will be Just about the same that it was
when the Union was formed, while the ratio of our advance and
the largely enhanced productiveness of agricultural, manufactur-
ing, and commercial pursuits, gives the present generation an
advantage that renders the debt far less burdensome at the very
outset.
And if the revolutionary debt became in a very brief period so
light as to be unnoticed, why may we not, with a vastly acceler-
ated ratio of progress, assume a similar auspicious result with re-
gard to the debt we are now contracting ? Were our future ad-
vance in wealth and population to be no more rapid than Great
Britain's has been since 1815, we should at the close of the pres-
ent century have a population of forty-five million souls, and a
property amounting to fifty thousand millions of dollars. Even
upon this ratio of progress our entire debt would cease to be felt
as a burden. But upon the increase of population and develop-
ment of wealth to be so assuredly anticipated, the debt would be
so small, in comparison with the total resources of the nation, as
to become absolutely inconsiderable.
Then in a peroration as remarkable for the logical co-ordi-
nation and the clear exposition of the facts he marshaled, as for
the simple yet most effective eloquence in which his conclu-
sions are expressed, he drew a striking picture of the future
before us.
To those who may be disposed to doubt the future progress of
our country according to the ratio assumed, a few familiar con-
siderations in respect to our resources may be recalled with ad-
vantage. We occupy a territory at least three million square
miles in extent ; within a fraction as large as the whole of Europe.
Our habitable and cultivable area is indeed larger than that of
all Europe, to say nothing of the superior fertility and general
productiveness of our soil. So vast is our extent that though we
may glibly repeat its numerical measure, we find it most diflBculfc
to form any just conception of it. The State of Texas alone ia
BLAINE^S SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS. 99
equal in area to the Empire of France and the kingdom of Portu-
gal united ; and yet these two monarchies support a population
of forty millions, while Texas has but six hundred thousand in-
habitants. Or, if we wish for a comparative measure nearer
home, let me state that the area of Texas is greater than that of
the six New England States, together with New York and New
Jersey and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Indiana all combined.
California, the second State in size, is equal in extent to the king-
dom of Spain and the kingdom of Belgium together. Spain and
Belgium have twenty millions of people, while California has not
half a million. And we might pursue this species of comparison
almost indefinitely, clearly showing that in capacity and assured
destiny our individual States, if peaceful and united, are to
become as wealthy, as populous, and as powerful as the separate
great nations of Europe. Mere territorial extent does not, of
course, imply future greatness, though it is one great requisite to
it. And in our case it is so vast an element that we may be par-
doned for dwelKng on it with emphasis and iteration. The land
that is still in the hands of our Government, not sold nor even
pre-empted, amounts to a thousand millions of acres — an extent
of territory thirteen times as large as Great Britain, and equal in
area to all the kingdoms of Europe, with Eussia and Turkey alone
excepted.
Combined with this almost limitless expanse of territory we
have facilities for the acquisition and consolidation of wealth —
varied, magnificent, and immeasurable. Our agricultural re-
sources, bounteous and boundless by nature, are, by the applica-
tion of mechanical skill and labor-saving machinery, receiving a
development each decade, which a century in the past would
have failed to secure, and which a century in the future will
place beyond all present power of computation — giving us so far
the lead in the production of those staple articles essential to life
and civilization that we become the arbiter of the world's destiny
without aiming at the world's empire. The single State of Illi-
nois, cultivated to its capacity, can produce as large a crop of
cereals as has ever been grown within the limits of the United
States ; while Texas, if peopled but half as densely as Maryland
loo BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
even, could give an annual return of cotton larger than the largest
that has ever been grown in all the cotton States together. Our
facilities for commerce and exchange, both domestic and foreign
— who shall measure them ? Our oceans, our vast inland seas,
our marvelous and unUmited flow of navigable streams, our
canals, our network of railroads more than thirty thousand miles
in extent, greater than the railroads of all Europe and all the
world besides — these give us avenues of trade and channels of
communication, both natural and artificial, such as no other
nation has ever enjoyed, and which tend to the production of
wealth with a rapidity not to be measured by any standard of the
past. The enormous field for manufacturing industry in all its
complex and endless variety — with our raw material, our wonder-
ful motive-power both by water and steam, our healthful climate,
our cheap carriage, our home consumption, our foreign demand —
foreshadows a trafiic whose magnitude and whose profit will in
no long period surpass the gigantic industrial system of Great
Britain, where to-day the cunning hands of ten million artisans
accomplish, with mechanical aid, the work of six hundred millions
of men ! Our mines of gold and silver and iron and copper and
lead and coal, with their untold and unimaginable wealth, spread
over millions of acres of territory, in the valley, on the mountain-
side, along rivers, yielding already a rich harvest, are destined
yet to increase a thousand-fold, until their e very-day treasures,
" familiar grown,
Shall realize Orient's fabled wealth."
These are the great elements of material progress ; and they
comprehend the entire circle of human enterprise — agriculture,
commerce, manufactures, mining. They assure to us a growth
in property and population that will surpass the most sanguine
deductions of our census tables, framed as those tables are upon
the ratios and relations of our progress in the past. They give
into our hands, under the blessing of Almighty God, the power
to command our fate as a Nation. They hold out to us the
grandest future reserved for any people ; and with this promise
they teach us the lesson of patience, and make confidence and
DURIXG BLAIXe'S TWEXTY TEAES IX COIS^GEESS.
Blaine's second term in congress. 103
fortitude a duty. With such amplitude and affluence of re-
sources, and with such a vast stake at issue, we should be un-
worthy of our lineage and our inheritance if we for one moment
distrusted our ability to maintain ourselves a united people, with
" one country, one constitution, one destiny."
This has the ring of true patriotism and true eloquence, un-
sullied by the artifices of rhetoric, sincere and self-restrained,
although dealing with a subject where an inferior master of
parliamentary oratory might have been tempted to embellish
his speech with all the brilliancy of declamation for which an
opportunity was afibrded, in this glowing prophesy of the
future grandeur of the Nation.
Many other subjects that came up before Congress, received
light from Mr. Blaine's discussion ; appropriations for the
army, the registry of vessels, and the whole question of recon-
struction were treated by him in a way convincing at once to
his immediate audience and to the people throughout the land.
His speech on the taxing of exports attracted the widest
possible attention. The subject was novel, the proposition
was daring, the arguments he used, cogent. It may be that
economic changes have deprived the proposal of the strong
reasons he then alleged, but as part of the history of Mr.
Blaine's career as a statesmen it deserves a summary, for it
contains some deeply thought-out passages. He proposed to
amend the Federal Constitution by striking out the clause
prohibiting the taxing of exports. A resolution introduced
by him on the 24th of March, 1864, had been already adopted
in the House, by which the Judiciary Committee were directed
to inquire as to the expediency of striking out the said clause
(Sec. 14, Art. 1, Clause 5), and in the following December
the subject had been again referred to the Committee of Ways
and Means, and although there seemed no chance of securing
a vote on the question, he could not now refrain from saying
104 BIOGBAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAlNfi.
a few words in support of such an amendment. He quoted a
long series of opinions by the framers and signers of the Con-
stitution, in which many of them expressed the gravest doubts
as to the wisdom of such a prohibitory clause, and continued :
I have cited enough to show that this prohibitory clause was
not inserted in the Constitution without very serious opposition
from many of the leading minds of the Convention. The citation
I have made dcmoustrates also that their opposition was not based
on narrow, local, and sectional grounds, but that it sprang from
great national considerations, overriding all these. Neither the
support nor hostility to the measure was determined by geograph-
ical lines. Thus much, Mr. Speaker, as to the origin of this
prohibitory clause, with the circumstances attending its adoption.
Stoutly as its introduction was resisted, it has remained in the
Constitution without cavil or question from that day to this — a
proposition to strike it out never having been submitted in Con-
gress prior to the one I am now discussing. Indeed, the perfect
ease with which the National treasury has been filled from tariff
duties, np to the beginning of the present war, continually obviated
the necessity of looking to other sources of revenue, and hence
very naturally little thought has been given to the immense sum
that might be derived from a judicious tax on exports.
Mr. Blaine urged that such a tax was now needed " for the
maintenance of our National credit," and in the conclusion of
his speech followed Mr. Madison's argument, who demanded
export duties for the " purpose of encouraging domestic manu-
facturers and procuring equitable treaties of commerce with
foreign nations." He spoke next of the subjects liable to such
taxation :
The general and obvious distinction is to tax such and such
only as have no competing product in foreign marts, or at all
events such weak competition as will give us the command of the
market after the commodity has paid its export dues in this
country. As an illustration, take cotton, which is our leading
Blaine's second term in congress. 1G5
export in time of peace. It is believed with confidence that the
American product can pay an export tax of five cents per pound,
and yet with ease maintain its pre-eminence in the markets of
England and the European continent. Our export in a single
year has reached three million two hundred thousand bales of five
hundred pounds each, and it would rapidly run beyond that figure
after peace is restored and the competition of free labor is applied
to its production. But if it should never go beyond the quantity
named, an export tax of five cents per pound would yield a
revenue of eighty million dollars from this single article, as any
one .will see by a moment's calculation.
Tobacco and naval stores also afford a large margin for an ex-
port tax, owing to the superior quality and quantity of the Amer-
ican production of each article.
In the case of tobacco, might we not, at all events, share with
foreign nations the advantage of the enormous tax which this
article of luxury will bear, making them pay a moiety into our
coffers instead of monopolizing it all for their own ? Should
petroleum continue to be developed in such immense quantities,
without being found elsewhere, it^ too, will in due time bear a
very considerable export tax, as, indeed, will all articles (without
attempting their specific enumeration) whose production is pecu-
liar to this country, or whose quality may be greatly superior to
products of similar kind in other countries, or, in the compre-
hensive phrase of Mr. Madison, " articles in which America is not
rivaled in foreign markets."
The fear that has often been expressed, that the Congressional
power to tax exports might be used to oppress certain sections,
and to discriminate against particular commodities, is manifestly
groundless. It is always safe to trust to self-interest in a nation as
well as in an individual. The highest National interest in the mat-
ter we are discussing, is to encourage exports in every honorable and
practicable way; and the moment that an export tax should tend
to check or decrease exportation, that moment it would be abolished
or reduced. Of course, there must be exportation before revenue
can be derived from an export tax, and hence I repeat that the
interest which underlies the whole design, affords the most abso-
106 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
lute guaranty against any oppressive attempt to discriminate
against any section or any particular commodity.
He then demonstrates the superior economy of collection in
the case of an export duty as compared with an excise, and,
further, maintained that an excise tax on raw products would
he disastrous to hoth the producer and Government. Taking
as an instance the article of cotton, he continued in favor of an
export tax on this production :
Not the least advantage, Mr. Speaker, in this mode of collect-
ing the tax, is the cheapness with which it can be done. The
points of shipment of cotton are so few that you may count
them on your fingers; and the tendency, owing to the converg-
ing of water-courses and railroad lines, is against any increase
in the number of these ports. The same officers of customs,
that are already there, to collect your tariff duties, can perform
the labor of collecting the export duties, without a dollar's addi-
tional expense, beyond the salaries of a few extra clerks that the
increase of business might demand. Compare with this the vast
expense of sending an army of excisemen throughout all the
cotton and tobacco plantations, and you will find that the system
of export duties would effect a saving of millions to the Govern-
ment, simply in the mode of collection. And, sir, you could
invent no more offensive system of taxation than would be in-
volved in sending your Government agents to every rural home
in the planting regions, to interrogate the farmer as to the
number of bales in his cotton crop, or how many pounds of to-
bacco he had raised. The officials, who should perambulate the
country on such errands, would acquire, in popular opinion, as
bad a reputation as Dr. Johnson, in his dictionary, fastened on the
English exciseman, *'an odious wretch, employed to collect an
unjust tax."
The great statesmen whom I have quoted in the earher por-
tion of my remarks as against the insertion of this prohibitory
clause in the Constitution, among other grounds of opposition
to it, stated that an export tax might be necessary " for the
BLAINE'S SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS. 107
encouragement of domestic manufactures." Sir, this result
would be realized in its fullest extent if cotton should be sub-
jected to an export tax of five cents per pound, leaving that
consumed at home free of duty except the excise tax, which
would be levied upon it in the various forms of its manufacture.
With this vast advantage in the raw material we should cease to
wrangle here about tariffs, for we could in our home markets
undersell the fabrics of Europe, and should soon compete with
them in the markets of the world. The export tax, as compared
with the excise, would thus prove beneficent to all the interests
of our country, stimulating the production of the raw material
and developing the manufacturing enterprise of the land in a
ratio compared with which the accomplishments of the past
would seem tame and inconsiderable. The Secretary of the
Treasury must have open to him the three great avenues of taxa-
tion— the tariff, the excise system, and the duties on exports;
and must be empowered to use each in its appropriate place by
Congressional legislation. At present only two of these modes
of taxation are available, and the absence of the third, in the
language of an eminent statesman already quoted, " takes from
the General Government half the regulation of trade." It is for
Congress to say whether the people shall have an opportunity to
change the organic law in this important respect, or whether,
with a blind disregard of the future, we shall rush forward, reck-
less of the financial disasters that may result from a failure to do
our duty here.
CHAPTEE VII.
BLAINE'S THIKD TERM IN CONGRESS.
The Currency Question. — The Honest Dollar. — Payment of debts in gold. —
Reply to General Butler. — The Five-twenty bond. — Legal Tenders. —
Blaine's energy. — Skirmish with Roscoe Conkling. — Basis of representa-
tion.— Suffrage on population. — Our ships and free trade. — The Blaine
Amendment. — Blaine's popularity. — In Committee and in the House.—
Democratic testimony.
MK. BLAINE was of course renominated for Congress by
his fellow-citizens in Maine, and entered on his work in
the session of 1868 with the admiration and love of his own
party and the respect of his opponents.
The great question of that eventful period was tliat of
Currency and Finance. Many schemes were advocated which,
we now see, would have imperiled the honor of our country,
many which were fallacious, although proposed and supported
by our ablest authorities on these important subjects. Mr.
Blaine had deeply studied the intricate problem. He had
already, in the previous Congress, made a record in favor of
"the honest dollar," and he never swerved from his view.
His brief remarks in moving to lay on the table the Gold Bill
introduced by Thaddeus Stevens, ought to be read by every
Greenbacker to-day. " The bill," he said, " aimed at what
was impossible. You cannot make a gold dollar worth less
than it is, or a paper dollar worth more than it is by a Con-
gressional declaration'' And in the present Congress he again
stood up for honesty in a more elaborate speech. His views
on this momentous question had been formed after careful
BLAINE'S THIRD TERM IN CONGRESS. 109
preparation, and had a decided influence on the most prejudiced
of his hearers. He forcibly and with irrefutable logic com-
bated the opinions proposed by Mr. G. H. Pendleton, the
late Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and by
Mr. B. F. Butler, of Massachusetts. He said :
The position of these gentlemen I understand to be simply
this : That the principal of the United States ho7ids, hnown as
the Five-twenties, may le fairly and legally paid in paper
currency ly the Government after the expiration of five years
from the date of issue.
A brief review of the origin of the Five-twenty bonds will
demonstrate, I think, that this position is in contravention
of the honor and good faith of the National Government; that
it is hostile to the spirit and the letter of the law ; that it con-
temptuously ignores the common understanding between bor-
rower and lender at the time the loan was negotiated ; and that
finally, even if such mode of payment were honorable and prac-
ticable, it would prove disastrous to the financial interests of the
Government and the general prosperity of the country. I crave
the attention and indulgence of the House while I recapitulate
the essential facts in support of my assertion.
Then citing witnesses to prove that the voice of Congress had
been uniform and consistent in support of the principle of
paying the bonded debt in gold, he proceeded :
But, now, Mr. Speaker, suppose, for the sake of argument, we
admit that the Government may fairly and legally pay the Five-
twenty bonds in paper currency, what then ? I ask the gentle-
man from Massachusetts to tell us, what then ? It is easy, I
know, to issue as many greenbacks as will pay the maturing
bonds, regardless of the effect upon the inflation of prices, and
the general derangement of business. Five hundred millions of
the Five-twenties are now payable, and according to the easy
mode suggested, all we have to do is to set the printing-presses
in motion, and ^'so long as rags and lampblack hold out" we
need have no embarrassment about paying our National Debt,.
110 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
But the ugly question recurs, what are you going to do with the
greenbacks thus put afloat? Five hundred millions this year,
and eleven hundred millions more on this theory of payment by
the year 1872 ; so that within the period of four or five years we
would only have added to our paper money the trifling inflation
of sixteen hundred millions of dollars. We should all have
splendid times doubtless ! Wheat, under the new dispensation,
ought to bring twenty dollars a bushel, and boots would not be
worth more than two hundred dollars a pair, and the farmers
of our country would be as well off as Santa Anna's rabble of
Mexican soldiers, who were allowed ten dollars a day for their
services and charged eleven for their rations and clothing. The
sixteen hundred millions of greenbacks added to the amount
ah'eady issued, would give us some twenty-three hundred millions
of paper money, and I suppose the theory of the new doctrine
would leave this mass permanently in circulation, for it would
hardly be consistent to advocate the redemption of the green-
backs in gold after having repudiated and foresworn our obliga-
tion on the bonds.
But if it be intended to redeem the legal tenders in gold, what
will have been the net gain to the Government in the whole trans-
action ? If any gentleman will tell me, I shall be glad to learn
how it will be easier to pay sixteen hundred millions in gold in
the redemption of greenbacks, than to pay the same amount in
the redemption of Five-twenty bonds? The pohcy advocated, it
seems to me, has only two alternatives — the one to ruinously
inflate the currency and leave it so, reckless of results ; the other
to ruinously inflate the currency at the outset, only to render
redemption in gold far more burdensome in the end.
The remedy for our financial troubles, Mr. Speaker, will not
be found in a superabundance of depreciated paper currency.
It lies in the opposite direction — and the sooner the nation finds
itself on a specie basis, the sooner will the public treasury be
freed from embarrassment, and private business relieved from
discouragement. Instead, therefore, of entering upon a reckless
and boundless issue of legal tenders, with their consequent de-
pression if not destruction of value^ let us set resolutely to work
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11111111 1 IIIIII{IIIIIII1{ III
BLAINE AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CABHsTET VIEWING
GARFIELD'S REMAINS.
BLAINE'S THIBD TERM IN CONGRESS. 113
and make those already in circulation equal to so many gold
dollars.
Discarding all such schemes as at once unworthy and un-
profitable, let us direct our policy steadily, but not rashly,
towards the resumption of specie payment. And when we have
attained that end — easily attainable at no distant day if the
proper policy be pursued — we can all unite on some honorable
plan for the redemption of the Fire-twenty bonds, and the
issuing instead thereof a new series of bonds which can be more
favorably placed at a lower rate of interest. When we shall have
reached the specie basis, the value of United States securities
will be so high in the money market of the world, that we can.
command our own terms. We can then call in our Five-
twenties according to the very letter and spirit of the bond, and
adjust a new loan that will be eagerly sought for by capitaHsts,
and will be free from those elements of discontent that in some
measure surround the existing funded debt of the country.
And this, Mr. Speaker, we shall do. Our National honor
demands it ; our National interest equally demands it. We
have vindicated our claim to the highest heroism on a hundred
bloody battle-fields, and have stopped at no sacrifice of life
needful to the maintenance of our National integrity. I am
sure that in the peace wliich our arms have conquered, we shall
not dishonor ourselves by withholding from any public creditor
a dollar that we promised to pay him, nor seek by cunning con-
struction and clever afterthought, to evade or escape the full
responsibility of our National indebtedness. It will doiibtless
cost us a vast sum to pay that indebtedness — but it would cost
us incalculably more not to pay it.
During the Fortieth Congress the energy of Mr. Blaine was
wonderful. He was in a state of ceaseless activity. Bills,
speeches, reports, resolutions, occupied every moment. His
work on Committees was heavier than that of any other mem-
ber, and either as committee-man or originator of measures he
was connected with the management of affairs concerning the
army, navy, post-offices, Congressional library, Indian reserva-
114 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
tions, relief of individuals, common carriers between - the
States, Treasury Department, cotton tax, issue of U. S. bonds,
Funding bill, Mexican treaties, foreign commerce, election
cases, river and barbor improvement, funeral of ex-President
Buchanan, Custom-house frauds, House Eules, military laws,
the re-arrangement of the rooms of the Capitol, and even mat-
ters concerning the messengers, pages, and restaurant-keeper.
On another very important question, Mr. Blaine had taken
in the Thirty-ninth Congress a clear and decided stand : it
was the basis of representation in Congress, Was the basis
to be the number of voters or the number of inhabitants 7
After a preliminary skirmish with Koscoe Conkling, whom
he described as " presenting the spectacle of the waterman in
the Pilgrim's Progress who got his living by rowing in one
direction while looking in another," he proceeded to his argu-
ment that population, not suffrage, ought to be the basis of
representation :
Since the beginning of the present session, Mr. Chairman, we
have had several propositions to amend the Federal Constitution
with respect to the basis of representation in Congress. These
propositions have differed somewhat in phrase, but they all em-
brace substantially the one idea of making suffrage instead of
population the basis of apportioning Eepresentatives ; or, in other
words, to give to the States in future a representation propor-
tioned to their voters instead of their inhabitants.
The effect contemplated and intended by this change is per-
fectly well understood, and on all hands frankly avowed. It is
to deprive the lately rebellious States of the unfair advantage of
a large representation in this House, based on their colored popu-
lation, so long as that population shall be denied political rights
by the legislation of those States. The proposed constitutional
amendment would simply say to those States, while you refuse
to enfranchise your black population, you shall have no represen-
tation based on their numbers; but admit them to civil and
political rights, and they shall at once be counted to your advan-
tage in the apportionment of Representatives.
Blaine's third term ik congress.
115
The direct object thus aimed at, as it respects the rebeUious
States, has been so generally approved that little thought seems
to have been given to the incidental evils which the proposed
constitutional amendment would inflict on a large portion of the
loyal States— evils, in my judgment, so serious and alarmmg as
to lead me to oppose the amendment in any form m which it
has yet been presented. As an abstract proposition, no one will
deny that population is the true basis of representation ; for
women, children, and other non-voting classes may have as vital
an interest in the legislation of the country as those who actually
deposit the ballot. Indeed, the very amendment we are discuss-
ing implies that population is the true basis, inasmuch as the
exclusion of the black people of the South from pohtical rights
has suggested this indirectly coercive mode of securing them
those rights. Were the negroes to be enfranchised throughout
the South to-day, no one would insist on the adoption of this
amendment ; and yet if the amendment shall be incorporated in
the Federal Constitution, its incidental evils will abide m the
loyal States long after the direct evil which it aims to cure may
have been eradicated in the Southern States.
Basing representation on voters, unless Congress should be
empowered to define their qualification, would tend to cheapen
suffrage everwhere. There would be an unseemly scramble in
all the States during each decade, to increase, by every means,
the number of voters, and all conservative restrictions, such as
the requirement of reading and writing, now enforced m some
of the States, would be stricken down in a rash and reckless
effort to procure an enlarged representation m the National
councils. Foreigners would be invited to vote on a mere pre-
liminary " declaration of intention."
No question is of more vital importance to-day than the
revival of our mercantile name. Twenty years ago it occu-
pied Mr. Blaine's attention, and in a speech denouncing the
granting of new American registers to ships that had been
transferred to foreign owners during the war he thus spoke of
ship-building and free trade :
116 BIOGRAPHY OW HON. JAMES Q. BLAiiJfi.
One word more, Mr. Speaker. The whole tone of the speeches
we have had from both the gentlemen from Ohio (Mr. Spaulding
and Mr. Garfield) was for free trade. They urge that we shall
buy our ships wherever we can get them cheapest, and that all
restrictions as to registry should be abolished. Well, sir, if we
are prepared to reduce this free trade theory to practice, why not
have it in everything ? There is no branch of American industry
that is, to-day, so little protected and so much oppressed by our
revenue laws as ship-building. It is taxed at all points, and nearly
taxed to death ; and I submit to these new advocates of free trade
that it would be better to begin with some interest that is essen-
tially protected by our laws to-day. If we are going to have free
trade, let us have it equally and impartially applied to all the in-
dustrial interests of the land ; but for myself, I am opposed to it
altogether. In theory and in practice, I am for protecting Ameri-
can industry in all its forms, and to this end we must encourage
American manufactures, and we must equally encourage American
cotmnerce.
A measure with whicli Mr. Blaine's name is inseparably
connected is the so-called Blaine amendment, " I appeal to
my friend from Pennsylvania," he said, " to allow us to add a
section to the pending bill, and I ask the attention of the
House while I read it:
"Sec. — . And be it further enacted, that when the constitu-
tional amendment proposed as article fourteenth of the Thirty-
ninth Congi-ess shall have become a part of the Constitution of
the United States by the ratification of three-fourths of the States
now represented in Congress; and when any one of the late so-
called Confederate States shall have given its assent to the same
and conformed its constitution and laws thereto in all respects ;
and when it shall have provided by its constitution that the
elective franchise shall be enjoyed equally and impartially by all
male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years old and up-
ward, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of ser-
vitude, except such as may be disfranchised for participating in
the late rebeUion ; and when said constitution shall have beea
BLAINE'S THIKD TERM IN CONGRESS. 117
submitted to the voters of said State, as thus defined, for ratifica-
tioD or rejection ; and when the constitution, if ratified by the
popular vote, shall have been submitted to Congress for examina-
tion and approval, said State shall, if its constitution be approved
by Congress, be declared entitled to representation in Congress,
and Senators and Eepresentatives shall be admitted therefrom on
their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter
the preceding sections of this bill shall be inoperative in said
State."
Such a clause, he urged, if incorporated in the bill would
be a basis of reconstruction, and bring Congress up to the
declaration of making equal suffrage a condition precedent to
admission. The true interpretation of the elections of 1866,
he urged, was that universal or impartial suffrage should be
the basis of restoration.
Why not declare it so? Why not, when you send out this
military police authority to the lately rebellious States, send with
it that impressive declaration ? This amendment does not in
the least conflict with the bill for the civil government of Louisi-
ana which we passed to-day. It need not conflict with any en-
abling act you may pass in regard to the other nine States. If
you choose you may follow up this action at the opening of the
Fortieth Congress by passing enabling acts for the other nine
States. A declaration of this kind attached to this bill will, it
seems to me, have great weight and peculiar significance. It
announces to these States what it is important for them to know,
and what alone the Congress of the United States can authorita-
tively declare.
In the first place, it specifically declares the doctrine that
three-fourths of the States represented in Congress have the
power to adopt the constitutional amendment, and it does not
even by implication give them to understand that their assent or
ratification is necessary to its becoming a part of the Constitu-
tion. It implies that their assent to it is a qualification for them-
selves ; merely an evidence, both moral an^ legal, of good faith
118 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
and loyalty on their part. We specially provide against their
drawing the slightest inference in favor of their being a party in
any degree essential to the valid ratification of that amendment.
After Blaine's nomination in 1866, a Democratic paper had
expressed its satisfaction of his prospective election for a third
term. " As a ready and forcible debater, a clear reasoner, a
sound legislator, fearless advocate, and true supporter of
the principles and organization of the party of Union and
Eight, he has made a mark in the annals of Congress of which
he and those who elected him may be proud." And proud of
him they were ; not only his own immediate constituents in
the Third Congressional District of Maine, but the whole
Republican party without exception ; not only Republicans,
but Democrats who respected an open, honest foe, and who
admired his genuine American character.
CHAPTEE VIII.
BLAINE AS SPEAKER.
His three terms.— His inaugural address.— His valedictories.— His participa-
tion in debate.— Reply to General Butler's charges.— Tlie Credit Mobilier
scandal.
IT has been the lot of few men in the annals of Parliament-
ary government to have made to themselves an enduring
reputation by their conduct in presiding over the deliberations
of an assembly. In the long roll of statesmen who have filled
the office of Speaker in the model and parent of modern
popular assemblies, the English House of Commons, only two
of its presiding officers have so identified themselves with their
high office, or so impressed on that high office such a stamp
of their own potent individuality, as to be known to a distant
posterity by the inseparable title of Speaker. We can only
recall in English annals the names of Speaker Lenthall and
Speaker Onslow. The others may have defied monarchs,
or faced calmly popular tumult, but these two alone survive
in history with the proud appellation of their office. What-
ever may be Mr. Blaine's future, whether he be President or
Senator, he will perhaps be longest remembered as Speaker
Blaine.
On March 4, 1869, Blaine was elected Speaker of the House
of Eepresentatives. He had, after slight debate, been nom-
inated by the Kepublican caucus, and was elected by one
hundred and twenty-five votes against fifty-seven given for
the Pemocratic candidate, Michael 0. Kerr, of Indiana, a man
120 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
of great force of character, unblemished integrity, and destined
afterwards to be one of his successors.
His inaugural address was brief and to the point — the
speech of a judge, not the harangue of an advocate.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : I thank
you profoundly for the great honor which you have just conferred
upon me. The gratification which this signal mark of your con-
fidence brings to me finds its only drawback in the diffidence
with which I assume the weighty duties devolved upon me.
Succeeding to a chair made illustrious by the services of such
eminent statesmen and skilled parliamentarians as Clay, and
Stevenson, and Polk, and Winthrop, and Banks, and Grow, and
Colfax, I may well distrust my ability to meet the just expecta-
tions of those Avho have shown me such marked partiality. But
relying, gentlemen, on my honest purpose to perform all my
duties faithfully and fearlessly, and trusting in a large measure
to the indulgence which I am sure you will always extend to me,
I shall hope to retain, as I have secured your confidence, your
kindly, regard and your generous support.
The Forty-first Congress assembles at an auspicious period in
the history of our Government. The splendid and impressive
ceremonial which we have just witnessed in another part of the
Capitol appropriately symbolizes the triumphs of the past and
the hopes of the future. A great chieftain, whose sword at the
head of gallant and victorious armies saved the Republic from
dismemberment and ruin, has been fitly called to the highest civic
honor which a grateful people can bestow. Sustained by a Con-
gress that so ably represents the loyalty, the patriotism, and the
personal worth of the nation, the President this day inaugurated
will assure to the country an administration of purity, fidelity,
and prosperity ; an era of liberty regulated by law, and of law
thoroughly inspired with liberty.
Congratulating you, gentlemen, upon the happy auguries of
the day, and invoking the gracious blessing of Almighty God on
the arduous and responsible labors before you, I am now ready to
take the oath of oJSice and enter upon the discharge of the duties
to which you have called me.
BLAINE AS SPEAKER. 123
The oath of office was then administered by Hon. Elihu B.
Washburne, of Illinois, the senior member of the body.
In the Chair Mr. Blaine was always courteous, so impartial
that not even his political opponents accused him of unfair-
ness, decided in enforcing his rulings, and cool amidst all the
tempest of debate. Mr. Banks had long been extolled as a
model Speaker, and Clay's bearing in the Chair was still
remembered, but neither Clay nor Banks has left such a
reputation as Mr, Blaine. In this office again he had already
had experience ; he had, as we have related in a previous
chapter, presided with distinguished success over the stormy
democracy of Maine. He had then and there laid the founda-
tion of his knowledge of parliamentary law, which his experi-
ence on the flour of the House had perfected. Beyond all
dispute he was the best fitted man of his party to discharge
the high and difficult duties he was called on to perform.
" His quickness," wrote a well-informed Washington cor-
respondent, "his thorough knowledge of parliamentary law
and of the rules, his firmness, clear voice, and impressive man-
ner, his ready comprehension of subjects and situations, and
his dash and brilliancy have been widely recognized, and really
made him a great presiding officer." He was soon celebrated
for his dispatch of business. He was described as adverse to
red tape, and having an admirable faculty for cutting corners
and knocking away obstructions so that the House could go
by the most direct way to the end it was seeking. " No man
since Clay," men said, " had presided with such an absolute
knowledge of the rules of the House and with so great a
mastery in the rapid, intelligent, and faithful discharge of
business. His knowledge of parliamentary law was instinct-
ive and complete, and his administration of it so fair that
both sides of the House united at the close of each Congress
in cordial thanks for his impartiality."
124 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
0^ the 3d of March, 1871, Blaine's first term as Speaker
came to an end. Mr. S. S. Cox, of New York, his old oppo-
nent, then and now a consistent and courageous Democrat,
moved a resolution of thanks to Mr. Blaine for his conduct in
the Chair. It was in the following terms :
Eesolved, In view of the diflaculties involved in the perform-
ance of the duties of the presiding officer of this House, and of
the able, courteous, dignified, and impartial discharge of those
duties by Hon. J. G. Blaine during the present Congress, it is
eminently becoming that our thanks be and they are hereby
tendered to the Speaker thereof.
The resolution was agreed to unanimously, and the retiring
Speaker, in adjourning the House at noon, pronounced the
valedictory of the Forty-first Congress :
Gentlemen of the House of Eepresentatives : Our
labors are at an end ; but I delay the final adjournment long
enough to return my most profound and respectful thanks for
the commendation which you have been pleased to bestow upon
my oificial course and conduct.
In a deliberative body of this character a presiding officer is
fortunate if he retains the confidence and steady support of his
political associates. Beyond that you give me the assurance that
I have earned the respect and good-will of those from whom I
am separated by party lines. Your expressions are most grateful
to me, and are most gratefully acknowledged.
The Congress whose existence closes with this hour enjoys a
memorable distinction. It is the first in which all the States
have been represented on this floor since the baleful winter that
preceded our late bloody war. Ten years have passed since then
— years of trial and of triumph ; years of wild destruction and
years of careful rebuilding ; and after all, and as the result of all,
the National Government is here to-day, united, strong, proud,
defiant, and just, with a territorial area vastly expanded, and
with three additional States represented on the folds of its flag.
BLAINE AS SPEAKER. 125
For these prosperous fruits of our great struggle let us humbly
give thanks to the God of battles and to the Prince of Peace.
And now, gentlemen, with one more expression of the obliga-
tion I feel for the considerate kindness with which you have
always sustained me, I perform the only remaining duty of my
office, in declaring, as I now do, that the House of Eepresenta-
tives of the Forty-first Congress is adjourned without day.
On the following day, the Forty-second Congress met, and
there was no hesitation who was to be the Republican candi-
date. Geo. W. Morgan, of Ohio, was the nominee of the
opposition, but the ballot showed votes for James G. Blaine,
of Maine, 126 ; for Geo. W. Morgan, of Ohio, 92. Conducted
with the usual formalities to the Chair, and before taking the
usual oath. Speaker Blaine for the second time addressed the
House on his election :
Gentlemen: The Speakership of the American House of
Representatives has always been esteemed as an enviable honor.
A re-election to the position carries with it peculiar gratification,
in that it implies an approval of past official bearing. For this
great mark of your confidence I can but return to you my sin-
cerest thanks, with the assurance of my utmost devotion to the
duties which you call upon me to discharge.
Chosen by the party representing the political majority in this
House, the Speaker owes a faithful allegiance to the principles
and the policy of that party. But he will fall far below the
honorable requirements of his station if he fails to give to the
minority their full rights under the rules which he is called upon
to administer. The successful working of our grand system of
government depends largely upon the vigilance of party organiza-
tions, and the most wholesome legislation which this House pro-
duces and perfects is that which results from opposing forces
mutually eager and watchful and well-nigh balanced in numbers.
The Forty-second Congress assembles at a period of general
content, happiness, and prosperity throughout the land. Under
the wise administration of the National Government, peace reigns
126 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
in all our borders, and the only serious misunderstanding -witli
any foreign power is, we may hope, at this moment in process of
honorable, cordial, and lasting adjustment. We are fortunate in
meeting at such a time, in representing such constituencies, in
legislating for such a country.
Trusting, gentlemen, that our official intercourse may be free
from all personal asperity, believing that all our labors will
eventuate for the public good, and craving the blessing of Him
without whose aid we labor in vain, I am now ready to proceed
with the further organization of the House ; and, as the first step
thereto, I will myself take the oath prescribed by the Constitu-
tion and laws.
Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, who had served the longest
continuously in the House, then administered the oath.
Again, at the close of the second session of the Forty-second
Congress, a vote of thanks was moved by Mr. Samuel J.
Eandall, of his native State of Pennsylvania, " for the able,
prompt, and impartial manner in which he has discharged the
duties of his office," during the second session, and on the
final dissolution on the 3d of March, 1873, Mr. Dan. Voorhees,
of Indiana, addressing the temporary chairman, Mr. W. A.
Wheeler, of New York, said :
I rise to present a matter to the House in which I am sure
every member will concur. In doing so I perform the most
pleasant duty of my entire service on this floor. I offer the fol-
lowing resolution. It has the sincere sanction of my head and
of my heart. I move its adoption.
Then, amid the silence of the crowded hall, the Clerk of the
House read as follows :
Eesolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are
hereby tendered, to Hon. James G. Blaine, for the distinguished
ability and impartiality with which he has discharged the duty
of Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives of the Forty-second
Congress.
BLAtirii AS SPEAKER. l2?
The resolution was adopted unanimously.
On the same day, in adjourning the House sine die, Mr.
Blaine spoke as follows :
Gentlemen: For the forty-second time since the Federal
Government was organized, its great representative body stands
on the eve of dissolution. The final word which separates ns is
suspended for a moment that I may return my sincere thanks for
the kind expressions respecting my official conduct, which, with-
out division of party, you have caused to be entered on your
journal.
At the close of four years' service in this responsible and often
trying position, it is a source of honorable pride that I have so
administered my trust as to secure the confidence and approba-
tion of both sides of the House. It would not be strange if, in
the necessarily rapid discharge of the daily business, I should
have erred in some of the decisions made on points, and often
without precedent to guide me. It has been my good fortune,
however, to be always sustained by the House, and in no single
instance to have had a ruling reversed. I advert to this gratify-
ing fact, to quote the language of the most eloquent of my pre-
decessors, "in no vain spirit of exaltation, but as furnishing a
powerful motive for undissembled gratitude."
And now, gentlemen, with a hearty God bless you all, I dis-
cbarge my only remaining duty in declaring that the House of
Representatives for the Forty-second Congress is adjourned
without day.
For the third time, James G. Blaine, of Maine, was elected
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives on
December 2, 1873. He was conducted to the chair by Mr.
Maynard, of Tennessee, and Mr. Wood, of New York, and
spoke as follows :
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: The
vote this moment announced by the Clerk is such an expression
of your confidence as calls for my sincerest thanks. To be
chosen Speaker of the American House of Representatives is
128 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
always an honorable distinction ; to be chosen a third time en-
hances the honor more than three-fold; to be chosen by the
largest body that ever assembled in the Capitol imposes a burden
of responsibility which only your indulgent kindness could em-
bolden me to assume.
The first occupant of this Chair presided over a House of
sixty-five members, representing a population far below the
present aggregate of the State of New York. At that time in
the whole United States there were not fifty thousand civilized
inhabitants to be found one hundred miles distant from the flow
of the Atlantic tide. To-day, gentlemen, a large body of you
come from beyond that limit, and represent districts then
peopled only by the Indian and adventurous frontiersman. The
National Government is not yet as old as many of its citizens ;
but in this brief span of time, less than one lengthened life, it
has, under God's providence, extended its power until a con-
tinent is the field of its empire, and attests the majesty of its
law.
With the growth of new States and the resultant changes in
the centres of population, new interests are developed, rival to
the old, but by no means hostile, diverse, but not antagonistic.
Nay, rather are all these interests in harmony ; and the true
science of just government is to give to each its full and fair
play, oppressing none by undue exaction, favoring none by
undue privilege. It is this great lesson which our daily experi-
ence is teaching us, binding us together more closely, making
our mutual dependence more manifest, and causing us to feel,
whether we live m the North or in the South, m the East or in
the West, that we have indeed but " one country, one Consti-
tution, one destiny."
The Forty-third Congress expired on the 3d of March, 1875.
After the customary vote of thanks, Mr. Blaine made his vale-
dictory address. It was at once a farewell to the expiring
Congress and to his own tenure of the office. These were the
last words of Blaine, as Speaker of the House of Kepresenta-
tives — words dignifiied and solemn, as befitted the occasion and
the audience ;
BLAINE AS SPEAKER. 129
Gentlemen" : I close with this hour a six years' service as
Speaker of the House of Representatives — a period surpassed in
length by but two of my predecessors, and equaled by only two
others. The rapid mutations of personal and political fortunes
in this country have limited the great majority of those who
have occupied this Chair to shorter terms of office.
It would be the gravest inseusibihty to the honors and respon-
sibilities of life, not to be deeply touched by so signal a mark
of public esteem as that which I have thrice received at the
hands of my political associates. I desire in this last moment to
renew to them, one and all, my thanks and my gratitude.
To those from whom I differ in my party relations — the mi-
nority of this House — I tender my acknowledgments for the gen-
erous courtesy with which they have treated me. By one of
those sudden and decisive changes which distinguish popular
institutions, and which conspicuously mark a free people, that
minority is transformed in the ensuing Congress to the governing
power of the House. However it might possibly have been under
other circumstances, that event renders these words my farewell
to the Chair.
The Speakership of the American House of Representatives is
a post of honor, of dignity, of power, of responsibility. Its duties
are at once complex and continuous ; they are both onerous and
delicate ; they are performed in the broad light of day, under
the eye of the whole people, subject at all times to the closest
observation, and always attended with the sharpest criticism. I
think no other official is held to such instant and such rigid
accountability. Parliamentary rulings in their very nature are
peremptory; almost absolute in authority and instantaneous in
effect. They cannot always be enforced in such a way as to win
applause or secure popularity; but I am sure that no man of any
party who is worthy to fill this Chair will ever see a dividing line
between duty and policy.
Thanking you once more, and thanking you most cordially for
the honorable testimonial you have placed on record to my credit,
I perform my only remaining duty in declaring that the Forty-
third Congress has reached its constitutional limit, and that the
House of Representatives stands adjourned without day.
130 BIOGRAPHY OP HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Great applause followed from all sides of the House as the
Speaker stepped down from the seat he had filled for so many
years with general approval. Hands were clapped and cheers
arose from the upstanding members, which was joined in by the
throng of spectators in the galleries and on the floor. " Never
before," said an eye-witness, " was witnessed such a scene at the
close of Congress." His years of office had been years of excite-
ment, and scenes of an unwonted character had taken place. The
integrity of the Speaker himself had been assailed, and he had
to come down from his chair and once more defend himself on
the floor of the House. The first occasion which provoked the
Speaker to quit his high place and again join in the "rapture
of the strife," arose on the 16th of March, 1871, when the
House was considering a resolution providing for an investiga-
tion into alleged outrages perpetrated upon loyal citizens of
the South. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, in unsparing terms
censured the Speaker for being the author of the resolution,
and for procuring its adoption by a caucus of Republican
members. A colloquy of unusual acrimony ensued.
Mr. Blaine— I nominated Mr. Butler chairman of the commit-
tee, because I knew that if I omitted the appointment of the gentle-
man, it would be heralded throughout the length and breadth of
the country, by the clacqueurs who have so industriously dis-
tributed this letter this morning, that the Speaker had packed
the committee, as the gentleman said he would, with "weak-
kneed KepubUcans," who would not go into an investigation
vigorously, as he would. That was the reason. So that the Chau-
laid the responsibility upon the gentleman of declining the ap-
pointment.
Mr. Butler— I knew that was the trick of the Chair.
Mr. Blaine— Ah, the " trick ! " We now know what the gentle-
man meant by the word "trick." I am very glad to know that
the " trick " was successful.
Mr. Butler— No doubt.
BLAINiJ AS SPEAKEE. l33
Mr. Blaine — It is this "trick " which places the gentleman from
Massachusetts on his responsibility before the country.
Then he defied Mr. Butler to designate any members who
had voted under coercion; and on his refusal to do so, on the
plea of not wishing to violate private conversations, the
Speaker exclaimed :
Oh, no ; but you will distribute throughout the entire country
unfounded calumnies purporting to rest upon assertions made in
private conversations, which, when called for, cannot be verified.
Mr. Butler — Pardon me, sir. I said there was a caucus
Mr. Blaine — I hope God will pardon you ; but you ought not
to ask me to do it !
Mr. Butler — I will ask God, and not you.
Mr. Blaine — I am glad the gentleman will.
Mr. Butler — I have no favors to ask of the devil.
When replying to Butler's claim that whatever a caucus
may determine upon must be supported by every member of
the party, he got in some keen thrusts at the General's
changes of political faith, and at tbe intrigues he had set on
foot to prevent Mr. Blaine's nomination as Speaker in this
session. At the same time he proudly claimed to be defending,
in this defense of himself, the dignity of the chair.
Why, even in'the worst days of the Democracy, when the gentle-
man himself was in the front rank of the worst wing of it, when
was it ever attempted to say that a majority of a party caucus
could bind men upon measures that involved questions of consti-
tutional law, of personal honor, of religious scruple ? The gentle-
man asked what would have been done — he asked my colleague
(Mr. Peters) what would have been done in case of members of
a party voting against the caucus nominee for Speaker. I under-
stand that was intended as a thrust at myself. Caucus nomina-
tions of oflBcers have always been held as binding. But, just
here, let me say, that if a minority did not vote against the
decision of the caucus that nominated me for Speaker, in my
134 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
judgment, it was not the fault of the gentleman from Massachu-
setts. If the requisite number could have been found to have
gone over to the despised Nazarenes on the opposite side, that
gentleman would have led them as gallantly as he did the forces
in the Charleston Convention.
Mr. Speaker, in old times it was the ordinary habit of the
Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives to take part in debate.
The custom has fallen into disuse. For one, I am very glad that
it has. For one, I approve of the conclusion that forbids it.
The Speaker should, with consistent fidelity to his own party,
be the impartial administrator of the rules of the House, and a
constant participation in the discussions of members would take
from him that appearance of impartiality which it is so important
to maintain in the rulings of the Chair. But at the same time I
despise and denounce the insolence of the gentleman from Mas-
sachusetts when he attempts to say that the Representative from
the Third District of the State of Maine has no right to frame a
resolution; has no right to seek that under the rules that resolu^
tions shall be adopted ; has no right to ask the judgment of the
House upon that resolution. Why, even the insolence of the
gentleman himself never reached that sublime height before.
^tsTow, Mr. Speaker, nobody regrets more sincerely than I do
any occurrence which calls me to take the floor. On questions
of propriety, I appeal to members on both sides of the House,
and they will bear me witness, that the circulation of this letter
in the morning prints ; its distribution throughout the land by
telegraph ; the laying it upon the desks of members, was intended
to be by the gentleman from Massachusetts, not openly and
boldly, but covertly — I will not use a stronger phrase — an insult
to the Speaker of this House. As such I resent it. I denounce
it in all its essential statements, and in all its misstatements,
and in all its meaner inferences and meaner innuendoes. I de-
nounce this letter as groundless without justification ; and the
gentleman himself, I trust, will live to see the day when he will
be ashamed of having written it.
In 1872 the Credit Mobilier scandal came out. Charges of
SLAINE AS SPEAKEB. l35
bribery were preferred against a number of men who had
hitherto held high and honored positions ; the charges struck
in high places. It included the Vice-President of the United
States, the Vice-President-elect, three Senators, the Secretary
of the Treasury, Mr. Dawes, Mr. Garfield, Mr. Kelley, and
others. All these were accused of receiving bribes from the
hands of Mr. Oakes Ames, a Representative from Massachu-
setts. Mr. Blaine took the floor, and in moving a resolution
for the appointment of a committee to investigate the charge
(Mr. Cox, of New York, in the chair), he said :
A charge of bribery of members is the gravest that can be made
in a legislative body. It seems to me, sir, that this charge de-
mands prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation, and I have
taken the floor for the purpose of moving that investigation.
Unwilling, of course, to appoint any committee of investigation
to examine into a charge in "which I was myself included, I have
called you, sir, to the Chair, an honored member of the House,
honored here and honored in the country ; and when on Saturday
last I called upon you and advised you of this service, I placed
upon you no other restriction in the appointment of a com-
mittee than that it should not contain a majority of my political
friends.
Mr. Blaine's participation in active debate is doubtless a
practice more honored in the breach than in the observance,
and all impartial observers must agree with his opinion that
it is a habit justly fallen into desuetude, as likely to impair
that appearance of perfect impartiality which is absolutely
necessary for a presiding officer who hopes to maintain his
authority. In the two cases mentioned, it seems to have been
the best, the necessary course. In the strict discharge of his
iunctions he had been in favor of economy, and refused to
accept the increased salary assigned to the Speaker by the
notorious Salary Bill. During the consideration of the bill,
136 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES Q. BLAINE.
on the last day of January, 1873, lie addressed the House as
Speaker, and made the following remarks :
The Chair now desires to make a statement personal to him-
self. In reading the bill the Chair presumes the language of this
amendment would make the Speaker's salary $10,000 for this
Congress. The salary of the Speaker, the last time the question
of pay was under consideration, was adjusted to that of the Vice-
President and members of the Cabinet. The Chair thinks that
adjustment should not be disturbed, and the question which he
now raises does not affect the pay of other members of the House.
He asks unanimous consent to put in the word " hereafter," to
follow the words "shall receive." This will affect whoever shall
be Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives hereafter, and does
not affect the Speaker of this House, but leaves him upon the
same plane with the Vice-President and Cabinet officers, upon
the salary as before adjusted.
Nor in the subsequent proceedings did he falter in his reso-
lution. In the ensuing session, when the repeal of the bill, in
obedience to popular indignation, was under discussion, a
motion to adjourn was made, with the intention of defeating
the repeal. The casting vote of the Speaker was given to
negative the motion.
CHAPTER IX.
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY.
The Democratic tidal wave. — His courage and skill. — Demands for Blaine
as President. — The Currency Question. — Blaine's views on Finance. —
The Amnesty Bill. — Republican clemency. — Case of Jefferson Davis. —
Andersonville. — Rejection of the bill. — Irredeemable currency. — Evils
of the system. — Greenbackers. — Attacks on Blaine's integrity. — Union
Pacific Railroad Company. — The Investigating Committee.— The Mul-
ligan Letters. —Blaine sunstruck. — Popular sympathy.
IN 1874 the Democratic tidal wave had swept over the
country and placed a majority of Democrats in the House
of Representatives. Blaine again came to the floor of the
House, and in the face of the united and determined opposi-
tion, his unwearied activity and skillful leadership were the
salvation of his party. Without his courage and fertility of
resources the old Republican party would have been doomed
to a long eclipse. His labor during the session was unending ;
work in the House, consultations with his followers, corres-
pondence with supporters in the country occupied every wak-
ing hour ; every word he uttered, every line he penned, every
motion he made was eagerly commented upon in scores of
journals, and thousands of homes by millions of citizens. From
all sections of the land came loud and repeated demands that
he should be the nominee of the party for the Presidency in
the forthcoming campaign.
The currency question still occupied attention ; the agita-
tion on the subject was serious and alarming, the Legislature
was regarded widely as the source of tiie distress under wliicli
138 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
every interest was suffering, wild schemes of finance were
eagerly propounded, and eagerly listened to ; even members of
Congress advised the Nation to sell its gold and issue paper
" promises never to pay," receivable by law for labor and mer-
chandise. Against all these dangerous projects of unsound
financiers Blaine set his face, and in public and private argued
for sound money and the honest dollar, as he had in previous
sessions.
The first great debate, however, in which Blaine was the
champion of the Republican party, was on a question that ex-
cited every loyal heart more deeply than any dry question of
finance. It was that of a general amnesty to all the rebels who
had taken part in the war, including even Jefferson Davis.
The discussion continued through several sittings of the
House, Mr. Hill, of G-eorgia, advocating the measure, and Mr.
Blaine, one of the foremost originators and supporters of the
Fourteenth Amendment, urging its rejection. He denied that
the Republican party had been bigoted, narrow, or tyrannical ;
it had an imperishable record of liberality, magnanimity, and
mercy, far beyond any that has ever been shown before in the
world's history by the conqueror to the conquered. Instead
of any sweeping condemnation when the war ended, the Re-
publican party placed in the Fourteenth Amendment only one
exclusion, that of those who, in addition to revolting, had vio-
lated a personal oath of allegiance to the Constitution. This
disability, he showed, had been removed by wholesale, till at
the time of his speaking only seven hundred and fifty persons
were under disabilities.
In this list I see no gentlemen to whom I think there would
be any objection, and I am in favor of granting it to them on
the simple condition that they go before a United States court
and swear that they mean to conduct themselves as good
citizens. That is all.
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 139
In my amendment, Mr. Speaker, I have excepted Jefferson Davis
from its operation. Now I do not place it on the ground that
Mr. Davis was, as he has been commonly called, the head and
front of the rebellion, because on that ground I do not think the
exception would be tenable. Mr. Davis was just as guilty, no
more so, no less so, than thousands of others, who have already
received the benefit and grace of amnesty. Probably he was
far less efficient as an enemy of the United States ; probably he
was far more useful as a disturber of the Councils of the Con-
federacy than many who have already received amnesty. It is
not because of any particular and special damage that he above
others did to the Union, or because he was personally or
especially of consequence that I except him. But I except him
on this ground : that he was the author, knowingly, deliberately,
guiltily, and willfully, of the gigantic murders and crimes at
Andersonville.
And three days after, when the discussion had been renewed,
he said : " God forbid that I should lay at the door of the
Southern people these atrocities. I repeat it. I lay no such
charge at their door. There were deep movements among the
Southern people about these atrocities ; there was a profound
sensibility. I know that the leading officers of the Confed-
eracy protested against them, and also many subordinate offi-
cers, but," turning to Mr, Hill, of Georgia, " I have searched
the records in vain to find that the gentleman from Georgia
protested against them. No man on this side has ever inti-
mated that Jefferson Davis should be refused pardon on acr
count of political crimes ; it is too late for that ; it is because
of a personal crime."
Mr. Speaker, in view of all these facts, I have only to say that
if the American Congress, by a two-thirds vote, shall pronounce
Jefferson Davis worthy to be restored to the full rights of Ameri-
can citizenship, I can only vote against it and hang my head in
silence and regret it.
140 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
The amnesty was not granted, but his opponents in debate
remained more embittered than ever, and their enmity became
more pronounced as his prospects of nomination for the Presi-
dency grew brighter. He was not, and is not, a man to trim
his sails to catch every breeze ; he never condescended to com-
promise for his own personal gain or advantage. Although he
knew his views on the currency antagonized a powerful section
of his own party, he never hesitated in his course. In the
month following the heated debate on the Amnesty Bill, he
delivered another of his great speeches against the proposed
perpetuation of an irredeemable currency, on the 10th of Feb-
ruary.
A SOUND CURRENCY.
Mr. Chairman : The honor of the National Government and
the prosperity of the American people are alike menaced by those
who demand the perpetuation of an irredeemable paper currency.
For more than two years the country has been suffering from
prostration in business; confidence returns but slowly; trade re-
vives only partially ; and to-day, with capital unproductive and
labor unemployed, we find ourselves in the midst of an agitation
respecting the medium with which business transactions shall be
carried on. Until this question is definitely adjusted it is idle to
expect that full measure of prosperity to which the energies of
our people and the resources of the land entitle us. In the way
of that adjustment one great section of the Democratic party —
possibly its controlling power — stubbornly stands to-day. The
Eepublicans, always true to the primal duty of supporting the
nation's credit, have now cast behind them all minor differences
and dissensions on the financial question, and have gradually
consolidated their strength against inflation. The currency,
therefore, becomes of necessity a prominent political issue, and
those Democrats who are in favor of honest dealing by the
Government and honest money for the people may be compelled
to act as they did in that still graver exigency when the existence
of the Government itself was at stake.
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 143
While this question should be approached iu no spirit of partisan
bitterness, it has yet become so entangled with party relations
that no intelligent discussion of it can be had without giving its
political history, and if that history bears severely on the Demo-
cratic party, its defenders must answer the facts, and not quarrel
with their presentation. Firmly attached to one political party
myself, firmly beheving that parties in a free government are as
healthful as they are inevitable, I still think there are questions
about which parties should agree never to disagree ; and of these
is the essential nature and value of the circulating medium. And
it is a fact of especial weight and significance that up to the
paper-money era, which was precipitated upon us during the
rebellion as one of war's inexorable necessities, there never was a
political party in this country that believed in any other than the
specie standard for our currency. If there was any one principle
that was rooted and grounded in the minds of our earliest states-
men, it was the evil of paper money; and no candid man of any
party can read the Constitution of the United States and not be
convinced that its framers intended to protect and defend our
people from the manifold perils of an irredeemable currency.
Nathaniel Macon, one of the purest and best of American states-
men, himself a soldier of the Ke volution and a member of Con-
gress continuously during the administration of our first six
Presidents, embracing in all a period of nearly forty years, ex-
pressed the whole truth when he declared in the Senate that
"this was a hard-money Government, founded by hard-money
men, who had themselves seen and felt the evil of paper money
and meant to save their posterity from it."
To this uniform adherence to the specie standard the crisis of
the rebellion forced an exception. In January, 1862, with more
than a half-million of men in arms, with a daily expenditure of
nearly two millions of dollars, the Government suddenly found it-
self without money. Customs yielded but little, internal taxes
had not yet been levied, public credit was feeble, if not paralyzed,
our armies had met with one signal reverse and nowhere with
marked success, and men's minds were filled with gloom and ap-
prehension. The one supreme need of the hour w^s money, and
144 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
money the Government did not have. What, then, should be
done, or, rather, what could be done? The ordinary treasury note
had been tried and failed, and those already issued were dis-
credited and below the value of the bills of country banks. The
Government in this great and perilous need promptly called to its
aid a power never before exercised. It authorized the issue
of one hundred and fifty millions of notes, and declared them to
be a legal tender for all debts, public or private, with two excep-
tions.
The ablest lawyers who sustained this measure did not find
warrant for it in the text of the Constitution, but like the late
Senator Fessenden, of my own State, placed it on the ground of
" absolute, overwhelming necessity" ; and that illustrious Senator
declared that "the necessity existing, he had no hesitation."
Indeed, sir, to hesitate was to be lost, for the danger was that, if
Congress prolonged the debate on points of constitutional con-
struction, its deliberations might be interrupted by the sound of
rebel artillery on the opposite shore of the Potomac. The Ee-
publican Senators and Representatives, therefore, dismissing all
doubts and casuistry, stood together for the country, and if
taunted, as they were, by the Democracy and disloyalty of that
day, with violating the Constitution, they pointed to that law
which is older than constitutions. Adopting the sentiment, as
they might have quoted the imputed language, of John Milton,
they believed that " there is the law of self-preservation, written
by God himself on our hearts ; there is the primal compact and
bond of society, not graven on stone, nor sealed with wax, nor
put down on parchment, nor set forth in any express form of
word by men when of old they came together, but implied in the
very act that they so came together, pre-supposed in all subse-
quent law, not to be repealed by any authority, not invalidated
by being omitted in any code, inasmuch as from thence are all
codes and all authority."
But the promptings of patriotism, the pressure of necessity, the
"despotism of duty," which thus decided the course of the Re-
publicans failed to influence the Democrats in Congress. Mar-
shaled and led by Mr. Pendleton, since become the great advocate
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 145
of inflation, the Democratic Representatives voted in well-nigh
solid column against the legal-tender bill. Bankruptcy in the
treasury was impending ; eighty millions of unpaid requisitions
lay on the secretary's desk; a large part of the army had not re-
ceived a dollar for six months; supplies were failing ; recruiting
halted ; the spirits of the people drooped ; while the executive
department, charged with the conduct of the war, urged that
critical campaigns, then in progress, would necessarily end in
disaster unless relief could be afforded in this way. But Demo-
cratic consciences were too tender, and Democratic scruples too in-
tense, at that time to permit such a fearful infraction of the Con-
stitution as the passage of a legal-tender bill, even to save the
Union of our fathers and thus preserve the Constitution itself.
The necessities of the Government were so great and expendi-
tures so enormous, that another hundred and fifty millions of
legal-tender notes were speedily called for and granted by Con-
gress, the Democrats again voting, under Mr. Pendleton's lead,
against the measure. With varying fortunes, the last year of the
war was reached, with three hundred millions of legal-tender in
circulation. With the strain of our public credit and the doubts
and vicissitudes of the struggle these notes had fallen far below
par in gold, and it became apparent to every clear-headed observer
that the continued issue of legal tenders, with no provision for
their redemption and no limit to their amount, would utterly
destroy the credit of the Grovernment and involve the Union
cause in irretrievable disaster. But, at that moment, the mih-
tary situation, with its perils and its prospects, was such that the
Government must have money more rapidly than the sale of
bonds could furnish it, and the danger was that the sale of bonds
would be stopped altogether, unless some definite limit could be
assigned to the issue of legal-tender notes. Accordingly, Con-
gress sought, and successfully sought, to accomplish both ends at
the same time, and they passed a bill granting one hundred mil-
lions additional legal-tender circulation — making four hundred
millions in all — and then incorporated in the same law the solemn
assurance and pledge that ''the total amount of United States
notes, issued and to be issued, shall never exceed four hundred
146 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
millions of dollars." And to this pledge every Democratic Sena-
tor and Eepresentative assented, either actively or silently, as the
Journals of both Houses will show. The subsequent readiness
of many of those gentlemen to trample on it must be upon the
broad principle of ethics that the Government should keep those
pledges which are profitable, and disregard those which it will
pay to violate.
When the war was over and the Union saved, one of the first
duties of the G-overnment was to improve its credit and restore a
sound currency to the people ; and here we might have reason-
ably expected the aid of the Democratic party. But we did not
receive it. Irreconcilably hostile to the issue of legal-tenders
when that form of credit was needed for the salvation of the
country, the Democracy, as soon as the country was saved, con-
ceived a violent love for these notes, and demanded an almost
illimitable issue of them.
Mr. Seymour, as the Democratic candidate for President in
1868, scouting the four hundred million pledge, stood on a plat-
form demanding that sixteen hundred millions of five-twenties
be paid off in legal tenders ; and he so heartily approved this
policy, that in his letter of acceptance he declared that "he
should strive to carry it out in the future, wherever he might be
placed in political or private life." His position at that time
was approved by every Democrat of high or low degree in New
York, was unanimously reaffirmed in their State Convention,
was sustained by all their newspaper organs, and was the recog-
nized creed of the party. East as well as West. Mr. Seymour
and his political associates in New York have changed their
ground and now proclaim an honest financial creed ; and after
the manner of the Pharisee, they broaden their phylacteries,
make loud professions of superior zeal, and thank God reverently
that they are not as their sinful brethren of the Ohio Democracy
— those financial Sadducees, who continue to reject all idea of
resurrection or redemption for the legal tender.
I have thus briefly referred to the past, Mr. Chairman, only
because I think it has an important bearing on the present and
the future, I dp not assume that the Eepublican party can
Blaine as leader op the partit. 147
possibly discharge its pending responsibilities by merely pointing
to its former grand achievements. '' Let not virtue seek remu-
neration for the thing it was." But I do claim that on this
financial question the course of the Republican party in the past
is a guaranty for the future, and that equally the course of the
Democratic party, of both wings and of all shades, is a menace
and a warning to the people.
If, however, the New York school of Democrats, repenting of
their former course and seeking better ways for the future, are
ready to give honest help in the restoration of a sound currency,
they will be gladly welcomed and their faith will be tested by
works before this session of Congress closes. They will not, how-
ever, deem it strange or harsh if, remembering their past record,
we feel an uncomfortable sense of distrust as to their entire sin-
cerity in the future. This distrust is increased when we witness
the brazen boldness witli which, in full view of their repudiation
record of but yesterday, they assume a stilted tone of superior
honesty on the financial question, and afiect patronizing lan-
guage toward the Republicans who saved the nation from the
lasting Wight of Mr. Seymour's triumph in 1868. Still further
deepened and strengthened is the distrust when we remember the
formal alliance which the New York Democrats have renewed
with the Democrats of the South, to whom our whole financial
system is but a reminder of what they themselves term their sub-
jugation, and who from past action and present tendency are un-
fitted to be the safe repository of the nation's pledges for the pay-
ment of its war debt. We have passed into a new era, and to
recall the Southern Democracy, with their appalling record, to
their ancient control in this country would be as decisive a step
backward and nightward as it would have been for the English
people to surround William of Orange with a Parliament made
up of adherents to the lost house of Stuart, or as it would be to-
day for the French Assembly to thrust on McMahon a cabinet
devoted to the fortunes of Henry the Fifth.
As I said at the outset of my remarks, Mr. Chairman, the
country is suffering under one of those periodical revulsions in
trade common to all commercial nations, and which thus far no
148 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINfi.
wisdom of legislation has been able to avert. The natural rest-
lessness of a people so alive and alert as ours looks for an instant
remedy, and the danger in such a condition of the public mind
is that something may be adopted that will ultimately deepen the
disease rather than lay the groundwork for an effectual cure.
Naturally enough in such a time the theories for relief are numer-
ous, and we have marvelous receipts offered whereby the people
shall be enabled to pay the dollar they owe with less than a
hundred cents : while those who are caught with such a delusion
seemingly forget that, even if this be so, they must likewise
receive less than a hundred cents for the dollar that is due them.
Whether the dollar that they owe to-day or the dollar that is due
them to-morrow will have the greater or less number of cents de-
pends on the shifting of causes which they can neither control
nor foresee; and therefore all certain calculation in trade is set at
defiance, and those branches of business which take on the form
of gambling are by a financial paradox the most secure and most
promising.
Uncertainty as to the value of the currency from day to day is
injurious to all honest industry.
And while that which is known as the debtor interest should
be fairly and generously considered in the shaping of measures
for specie resumption, there is no justice in asking for inflation on
its belialf. Eather there is the gravest injustice ; for you must
remember that there is a large class of most deserving persons
who would be continually and remorselessly robbed by such a
policy. I mean the Labor of the country, that is compelled to
live from and by its daily earnings. The savings-banks which
represent the surplus owned by the laborers of the nation, have
deposits to-day exceeding eleven hundred millions of dollars —
more than the entire capital stock and deposits of the national
banks. The pensioners, who represent the patriotic suffering of
the country, have a capitalized investment of six hundred millions
of dollars. Here are seventeen hundred millions of money in-
capable of receiving anything but instant and lasting injury from
inflation. Whatever impairs the purchasing power of the dollar
correspondingly decreases the resources of the saving-bank depoa-
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PABTY. 149
itor and pensioner. The pensioner's loss would be absolute, but
it would probably be argued that the laborer would receive com-
pensation by his nominally larger earnings. But this would prove
totally delusive, for no possible augmentation of wages in a time
of inflation will ever keep pace with the still greater increase of
price in the commodities necessary to sustain life, except — and
mark the exception — under the condition witnessed during the
war, when the number of laborers was continually reduced by the
demand of men to serve in the army and navy. And those
honest-minded people who recall the startling activity of trade
and the large profits during the war, and attribute both to an in-
flated currency, commit the error of leaving out the most im-
portant element of the calculation. They forget that the Govern-
ment was a customer for nearly four years at the rate of two or
three millions of dollars per day — buying countless quantities of
all staple articles ; they forget that the number of consumers was
continually enlarging as our armed force grew to its gigantic
proportions, and that the number of producers was by the same
cause continually growing less, and that thus was presented, on
a scale of unprecedented magnitude, that simple problem, familiar
alike to the political economist and the village trader, of the de-
mand being greater than the supply, and a consequent rise in the
price. Had the Government been able to conduct the war on a
gold basis and provided the coin for its necessarily large and lavish
expenditure, a rise in the price of labor and a rise in the value of
commodities would have been inevitable. And the rise of both
labor and commodities in gold would have been for the time as
marked as in paper, adding, of course, the depreciation of the
latter to its scale of prices.
While the delusion of creating wealth by the issue of irredeem-
able paper currency may lead to any number of absurd proposi-
tions, the advocates of the heresy seem to have settled down on
two measures — or, rather, one measure composed of two parts,
namely: To abolish the national banks, and then have the Gov-
ernment issue legal tenders at once to the amount of the bank
circulation, and add to the volume from time to time thereafter,
" according to the wants of trade." The two propositions are so
150 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINU.
inseparably connected that I shall discuss them together. The
National Bank system, Mr. Chairman, was one of the results of
the war, and the credit of its origin belongs to the late Salmon
P. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury. And it may not be
unprofitable just here to recall to the House the circumstances
which at the time made the national banks a necessity to the
Government. At the outbreak of the war there were considera-
bly over a thousand State banks, of various degrees of responsi-
bility, or irresponsibility, scattered throughout the country.
Their charters demanded the redemption of their bills in specie,
and under the pressure of this requirement their aggregate circu-
lation was kept within decent limits, but the amount of it was in
most instances left to the discretion of the directors, and not a
few of these banks issued ten dollars of bills for one of specie in
their vaults. With the passage of the legal tender act, however,
followed by an enormous issue of Government notes, the State
banks would no longer be required to redeem in specie, and
would, therefore, at once flood the country with their own bills,
and take from the Government its resource in that direction. To
restrict and limit their circulation, and to make the banks as
helpful as possible in the great work of sustaining the Govern-
ment finances, the national-bank act was passed.
This act required, in effect, that every bank should loan its en-
tire stock to the Government; or, in other words, to invest it in
Government bonds ; and then, on depositing these bonds with
the Treasurer of the United States, the bank might receive not ex-
ceeding ninety per cent, of their amount in circulating-notes, the
Government holding the bonds for the protection of the billholder
in case the bank should fail. And that, in brief, is precisely what
a national bank is to-day. I do not say the system is perfect. I
do not feel called upon to rush to its advocacy or its defense. I
do not doubt that as we go forward we may find many points in
which the system can be improved. But this I am bold to
maintain, that, contrasted with any other system of banking this
country has ever had, it is immeasurably superior ; and whoever
asks, as some Democrats now do, for its abolition, with a view of
getting back any system of State banks, is a blind leader ; and a
MAGGIE BLAINE AT THE TELEPHONE, RECEIVING THE NEWS OF
HER father's NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT.
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 153
Yery deep ditch of disorder and disaster awaits the followers, if
the people should ever be so blinded as to take that fatal step.
It is greatly to be deplored, Mr. Chairman, that many candid
men have conceived the notion that it would be a saving to the
people if aU banks could be dispensed with and a circulating me-
dium be furnished by the Government issuing legal tenders. I
do not stop here to argue that this would be in violation of the
Government's pledge not to issue more than four hundred
millions of its own notes. I merely remark that that pledge is
binding in honor until legal tenders are redeemable in coin on
presentation, and when that point is reached there will be no de-
sire, as there will certainly be no necessity, for the Government
issuing additional notes.
The great and, to my mind, unanswerable objection to this
scheme is that it places the currency wholly in the power and
under the direction of Congress. Now, Congress always has been
and always will be governed by the partisan majority, represent-
ing one of the political parties of the country ; and the proposi-
tion, therefore, reduces itself to this — that the circulating me-
dium, instead of having a fixed, determinate character, shall be
shifted and changed, and manipulated, according to the supposed
needs of "the party." I profess, Mr. Chairman, to have some
knowledge of the American Congress ; its general character, its
personnel, its scope, its limit, its power. I think, on the whole,
that it is a far more patriotic, intelligent, and upright body of
men than it generally gets credit for in the country ; but, at the
same time, I can possibly conceive of no assemblage of respect-
able gentlemen in the United States more utterly unfitted to de-
termine from time to time the amount of circulation required by
"the wants of trade." But, indeed, no body of men could be
intrusted with that power. Even if it were possible to trust
their discretion, their integrity would be constantly under sus-
picion. If they performed their duties with the purity of an
angel of light, they could not successfully repel those charges
which always follow where the temptation to do wrong is power-
ful and. the way easy. Experience would very soon demonstrate
that no more corrupt or corrupting device, no wilder or more
154 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES a. BLAINE.
visionary project, ever entered the brain of the schemer or the
empiric.
If the people of the United States were fully awake and
aroused to their interests, and could see things as they are,
instead of increasing the power of Congress over the currency,
they would by the shortest practicable process divorce the two,
completely and forever. And this can only be done finally,
effectually, irreversibly, by the resumption of specie payment.
Why, Mr. Chairman, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that,
ever since the Government was compelled to resort to irredeem-
able currency during the war, the assembling of Congress and its
continuance in session have been the most disturbing elements
in the business of the country. It is literally true that no man
can tell what a day may bring forth. One large interest looks
hopefully to contraction and the lowering of the gold premium ;
another is ruined unless there is such a movement toward ex-
pansion as will send gold up. Each side, of course, endeavors to
influence and convince Congress. Both sides naturally have
their sympathizing advocates on this floor, and hence the sub-
stantial business interests of the country are kept in a feverish,
doubtful, speculative state. Men's minds are turned from honest
industry to schemes of financial gambling, the public morals
suffer, old-fashioned integrity is forgotten, and solid, enduring
prosperity, with honest gains and quiet contentment, is rendered
impossible. We have suffered thus far in perhaps as light a
degree as could be expected under the circumstances ; but once
adopt the insane idea that all currency shall be issued directly by
the Government, and that Congress shall be the judge of the
amount demanded by the "wants of trade," and you have this
country adrift, rudderless, on a sea of troubles, shoreless and
soundless.
It is a singular coincidence, Mr. Chairman — one of those odd
happenings sometimes brought about by political mutations —
that those who urge this scheme upon the Government an
Democrats, every one of whom would doubtless claim to be a
true disciple of Andrew Jackson. And yet all the evils of which
Jackson warned the country in his famous controversy with the
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 155
United States Bank are a thousand-fold magnified and a thou-
sand-fold aggravated in this plan of making the Treasury
Department itself the bank, with Congress for the governing
board of directors. I commend to the gentlemen of Democratic
antecedents a careful perusal of Jackson's great message of July
10, 1832, and I wish them to frankly tell this House how they
think Jackson would have regarded the establishment of a great
national paper-money machine, to be located for all time in the
Treasury Department, the bills of which shall have no provision
for their redemption, and the amount of those bills to be deter-
mined by a majority vote in a party caucus.
And then, after Jackson's veto message shall have been
diligently perused and inwardly digested by the Democratic
advocates of irredeemable paper money, I will ask them if the
present national-bank system does not fully meet all of Jackson's
objections, and if it is not, indeed, as nearly as the difference of
time and circumstances will permit, such a system of banking as
Jackson indirectly commended, and as he professed himself ready
to submit a plan for if Congress should desire it? Disclaiming, as
I have done, any special championship of the national banks, but
merely referring to the facts of record, I would be glad further
to ask if the present system, in its entire freedom from monopoly,
being equally open to all ; if in the absolute protection it affords
to that innocent third party, the billholder (no man ever having
lost a dollar by the bills of national banks during the thirteen
years the system has been in operation, whereas in the preceding
thirteen years the losses to the people by bills of State banks
exceeded fifty millions of dollars) ; if in that universal credit
attached to its bills, saving the people all losses from exchange
or discount wherever payment is to be made within the United
States ; if in its protection of the rights of depositors ; if in its
strength and solvency in time of financial disaster ; if in its sub-
jection to taxation, both by the general and State governments,
until it confessedly pays a heavier tax than any other species of
property ; if in its capacity to measure, by the unvarying law of
supply and demand, the precise amount of circulation required
by the " wants of trade,"— I would be glad, I repeat, to ask any
156 BIOGBAPHT OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Democratic opponent of the system if it does not in eacli and all
of these features fill the ideal requirements of a bank as fore-
shadowed by Jackson, and if it does not indeed far transcend
any ideal Jackson had, in its freedom for all to engage in it, in
its absolute security to the public, and in its singular adaptation
to act as a regulator of the currency, preventing undue expansion
and undue contraction with equal and unfailing certainty, and
adjusting itself at once to the specie standard whenever the
Grovernment shall place its own notes at par with coin ?
It is urged by the opponents of the banking system that the
three hundred and twenty millions of bank circulation can be
supplied by the legal tenders and the interest on that amount of
bonds stopped! How? Does any gentleman suppose that the
bonds owned by the banks, and on deposit in the treasury, will
be exchanged for legal tenders of a new and inflated issue ?
Those bonds are payable, principal and interest, in gold; and,
with the present amount of legal-tender notes, they are worth in
the market from $1.16 to $1.25. What will they be worth in
paper money when you double the amount of legal tenders and
postpone the day of specie resumption far beyond the vision of
prophet or seer ? And this enormous issue of legal tenders to
take the place of bank-notes is only the beginning of the policy to
be inaugurated. The " wants of trade " would speedily demand
another issue, for the essential nature of an irredeemable currency
is that it has no limit till a reaction is born of crushing disaster.
A lesson might be learned (by those wilhng to be taught by fact
and experience) from the course of events during the war. When
we had one hundred and fifty millions of legal tender in circula-
tion, it stood for a long time nearly at par with gold. As the
issue increased in amount the depreciation was very rapid, and
at the time we fixed the four hundred million limit, that whole
vast sum had less purchasing power in exchange for lands,
or houses, or merchandise than the hundred and fifty millions
had two years before. In the spring of 1862, 1150,000,000 of
legal tender would buy in the market $147,000,000 in gold coin.
In June, 1864, $400,000,000 of legal tender would buy only
$140,000,000 in gold coin.
BLAINE AS LEADER OP THE PARTY. 157
And if we had not fixed the four hundred million limit, but
had gone on issuing additional amounts according to the " wants
of trade," as now argued and urged by the modern Democratic
financiers, the result would have been that at each successive
infiation the purchasing power of the aggregate mass would have
been made less, and the value of the whole would have gone
down, down, till it reached that point of utter worthlessness
which so many like experiments have reached before ; and the
legal tender, with all its vast capacity for good in a great national
crisis, would have taken its place in history alongside of the French
assignat and the continental currency. The four hundred mill-
ion limit happily saved us that direful experience, and at once
caused the legal tender to appreciate ; but, unwilling to learn by
this striking fact, the inflationists insist upon a scheme of expan-
sian which would speedily raise the price of bonds to unprece-
dented figures, and by the time they should succeed in purchas-
ing those that now stand as security for national bank circula-
tion they would have increased the national debt by countless
millions, and instead of making a saving for the treasury they
would end by depriving it of the eight millions of tax annually
paid by the banks, and the people would have lost the additional
eight millions of local tax derived from the same source.
I have not spoken of the confusion, the distress, the ruin, that
would result from forcing twenty-one hundred banks suddenly
to wind up their afiairs with nearly a thousand millions of dollars
due them, which in some form must needs be liquidated and
paid. The commercial fabric of the country rests upon the
bank credits, and nothing short of financial lunacy should
demand their rude disturbance. Whoever would strike down
the banks under the delusion that they can be driven to
surrender their bonds for infiated legal tenders, knows little
of the laws of finance and still less of the laws of human
action.
When the National Grovernment was organized in 1789 the most
liberal estimate of the property of the entire thirteen States
placed it at six hundred millions of dollars — ^less than the wealth
of Boston or of Chicago to-day. The population was four mill-
158 BIOGEAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
ions, showing a property of one liuudred and fifty dollars to each
inhabitant. By the census of 1870 our population had increased
to thirty-eight millions and our wealth to thirty thousand mill-
ions, showing eight hundred dollars per capita for the whole
people. Our population had increased in the eighty intervening
years not quite tenfold, but our wealth had increased fifty-
fold.
The patriots of 1790, with their slender resources, did not hesi-
tate to assume a national debt of ninety millions of dollars, being
more than one-seventh of their entire possessions ; and it never
occurred to them that an abandonment of the specie basis would
make their burden lighter. They knew from their terrible ex-
perience with continental currency that all their evils would be
painfully increased by a resort to paper money. And in their
poverty, with no accumulated capital, with manufactures in
feeblest infancy, with commerce undeveloped, with low prices for
their agi'icultural products, they maintained the gold and silver
standard, they paid their great debt, they grew rich in the prop-
erty which we inherited, but far richer in that bright, unsullied
honor which they bequeathed to us.
To-day, the total debts of the American people, national,
State, and municipal, are not so large in proportion to already
acquired property as was the national debt alone in 1790. And
when we take into the account the relative productive power of
the two periods, our present burdens are absolutely inconsid-
erable. When we reflect what the railway, the telegraph, the
cotton-gin, and our endless mechanical inventions and agencies
have done for us in the way of increasing our capacity for pro-
ducing wealth, we should be ashamed to pretend that we cannot
bear larger burdens than our ancestors. And remember, Mr.
Chairman, that our wealth from 1790 to 1870 increased more
than five times as rapidly as our population, and that the same
development is even now progressing with a continually accele-
rating ratio. Eemember, also, that the annual income and earn-
ings of our people are larger than those of any European coun-
try, larger than those of England, or France, or Eussia, or the
German empire. The English people stand next to us, but we
Blaine as leadek of the party. 159
are largely in advance of them. The annual income of our entire
people exceeds six thousand millions in gold, and despite financial
reverses and revulsions is steadily increasing.
In view of these facts it would be an unpardonable moral weak-
ness in our people — always heroic when heroism is demanded —
to doubt their own capacity to maintain specie payment. I am
not willing, myself, to acknowledge that as a people we are less
honorable, less courageous, or less competent than were our an-
cestors in 1790 ; still less am I ready to own that the people of the
entire Union have not the pluck and the capacity of our friends
and kinsmen in California; and last of all would I confess that
the United States of America, with forty-four millions of inhabi-
tants, with a territory surpassing all Europe in area, and I might
almost say all the world in fertility of resources, are not able to do
what a handful of British subjects, scattered from Cape Eace to
Vancouver's Island, can do so easily, steadily, and successfully.
*********
The reponsibility of re-establishing silver in its ancient and
honorable place as money in Europe and America devolves really
on the Congress of the United States. If we act here with pru-
dence, wisdom, and firmness, we shall not only successfully re-
monetize silver and bring it into general use as money in our own
country, but the influence of our example will be potential
among all European nations, with the possible exception of Eng-
land. Indeed, our annual indebtment to Europe is so great, that
if we have the right to pay it in silver, we necessarily coerce those
nations, by the strongest of all forces, self-interest, to aid us in
upholding the value of silver as money. But if we attempt the
remonetization on a basis which is obviously and notoriously be-
low the fair standard of value as it now exists, we incur all the
evil consequences of failure at home and the positive certainty of
successful opposition abroad. We are and shall be the greatest
producers of silver in the world, and we have a larger stake in its
complete monetization than any other country. The difference
to the United States between the general acceptance of silver as
money in the commercial world and its destruction as money, will
possibly equal within the next half-century the entire bonded debt
160 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
of the nation. But to gain this advantage, we must make it
actual money — the accepted equal of gold in the markets of the
world. Eemonetization here, followed by general remonetization
in Europe, will secure to the United States the most stable basis
for its currency that we have ever enjoyed, and will effectually
aid in solving all the problems by which our financial situation is
surrounded.
On the much-vexed and long-mooted question of a bi-metallic
or mono-metallic standard, my own views are sufficiently indi-
cated in the remarks I have made. I believe the struggle now
going on in this country and in other countries for a single gold
standard would, if successful, produce wide-spread disaster in the
end throughout the commercial world. The destruction of sil-
ver as money, and establishing gold as the sole unit of value,
must have a ruinous effect on all forms of property, except those
investments which yield a fixed return in money. These would
be enormously enhanced in value, and would gain a dispropor-
tionate and unfair advantage over every other species of proper-
ty. If, as the most reliable statistics affirm, there are nearly
seven thousand millions of coin or bullion in the world, not very
unequally divided between gold and silver, it is impossible to
strike silver out of existence as money without results which wiU
prove distressing to millions and utterly disastrous to tens of
thousands. Alexander Hamilton, in his able and invaluable
report in 1791 on the establishment of a mint, declared that *'to
annul the use of either gold or silver as money is to abridge the
quantity of circulating medium, and is liable to all the objections
which arise from a comparison of the benefits of a full circulation
with the evils of a scanty circulation." I take no risk in saying
that the benefits of a full circulation and the evils of a scanty cir-
culation are both immeasurably greater to-day than they were
when Mr. Hamilton uttered these weighty words, always provided
that the circulation is one of actual money, and not of depre-
ciated promises to pay.
The effect of paying the labor of this country in silver coin of
full value, as compared with irredeemable paper — or as compared,
even, with silver of inferior value — will make itself felt in a sin-
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 161
gle generation to the extent of tens of millions — perhaps hun-
dreds of millions — in the aggregate savings which represent
consolidated capital. It is the instinct of man, from the savage
to the scholar — developed in childhood and remaining with
age — to value the metals which in all tongues are called precious.
Excessive paper money leads to extravagance, to waste, and to
want, as we plainly witness on all sides to-day. And in the
midst of the proof of its demoralizing and destructive effect, we
hear it proclaimed in the halls of Congress, that "the people de-
mand cheap money." I deny it. I declare such a phrase to be a
total misapprehension — a total misinterpretation of the popular
wish. The people do not demand cheap money. They demand
an abundance of good money, which is an entirely different
thing. They do not want a single gold standard that will ex-
clude silver, and benefit those already rich. They do not want
an inferior silver standard, that will drive out gold and not help
those already poor. They want both metals, in full value, in
equal honor, in whatever abundance the bountiful earth will
yield them to the searching eye of science and to the hard hand
of labor.
The two metals have existed side by side in harmonious, hon-
orable companionship as money, ever since intelligent trade was
known among men. It is well nigh forty centuries since "Abra-
ham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the
audience of the sons of Heth — four hundred shekels of silver —
current money with the merchant." Since that time nations
have risen and fallen, races have disappeared, dialects and lan-
guages have been forgotten, arts have been lost, treasures have
perished, continents have been discovered, islands have been sunk
in the sea, and through all these ages and through all these
changes silver and gold have reigned supreme as the representa-
tives of value — as the media of exchange. The dethronement of
each has been attempted in turn, and sometimes the dethrone-
ment of both ; but always in vain ! And we are here to-day
deliberating anew over the problem which comes down to us
from Abraham's time — the weight of the silver ihsi,t shall be "cur-
rent money with the merchant."
162 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
What power, then, has Congress over gold and silver? It has
the exclusive power to coin them ; the exclusive power to regu-
late their value; very great, very wise, very necessary powers, for
the discreet exercise of which a critical occasion has now risen.
However men may differ about causes and processes, all will ad-
mit that within a few years a great disturbance has taken place
in the relative values of gold and silver, and that silver is worth
less or gold is worth more in the money markets of the world in
1878 than in 1873, when the further coinage of silver dollars was
prohibited in this country. To remonetize it now as though the
facts and circumstances of that day were surrounding us, is to
willfully and bUndly deceive ourselves. If our demonetization
were the only cause for the decline in the value of silver, then
remonetization would he its proper and effectual cure. But other
causes, quite beyond our control, have been far more potentially
operative than the simple fact of Congress prohibiting its further
coinage; and as legislators we are bound to take cognizance of
these causes. The demonetization of silver in the great German
empire and the consequent partial, or well nigh complete, sus-
pension of coinage in the governments of the Latin Union, have
been the leading, dominant causes for the rapid decline in the
value of silver. I do not think the over-supply of silver has had,
in comparison with these other causes, an appreciable influence
in the decline of its value, because its over-supply with respect to
gold in these later years has not been nearly so great as was the
over-supply of gold with respect to silver for many years after
the mines of Cahfomia and Australia were opened; and the
over-supply of gold from those rich sources did not affect the
relative positions and uses of the two metals in any European
country.
I believe, then, if Germany were to remonetize silver, and the
kingdoms and states of the Latin Union were to reopen their
mints, silver would at once resume its former relation with gold.
The European countries when driven to full remonetization, as I
believe they will be, must of necessity adopt their old ratio of
fifteen and a half of silver to one of gold, and we shall then be
compelled to adopt the same ratio instead of our former sixteen
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 163
to one. For if we fail to do this we shall, as before, lose our
silver, which like all things else seeks the highest market; and
if fifteen and a half pounds of silver will buy as much gold in
Europe as sixteen pounds will buy in America, the silver, of
course, will go to Europe. But our line of policy in a joint
movement with other nations to remonetize is very simple and
very direct. The diflBcult problem is what we shall do when we
aim to re-establish silver without the co-operation of European
powers, and really as an advance movement to coerce them there
into the same policy. Evidently the first dictate of prudence is
to coin such a dollar as will not only do justice among our citi-
zens at home, but will prove a protection — an absolute barricade
— against the gold mono-metallists of Europe, who, whenever the
opportunity offers, will quickly draw from us the one hundred
and sixty millions of gold coin which we still hold. And if we
coin a silver dollar of full legal tender, obviously below the cur-
rent value of the gold dollar, we are opening wide our doors and
inviting Europe to take our gold. And with our gold flowing
out from us we are forced to the single silver standard, and our
relations with the leading commercial countries of the world are
at once embarrassed and crippled.
To-day, when the Greenback heresy is practically dead and
only brought out to serve the purposes of some ambitious
demagogue, it is like reading ancient history to peruse Mr.
Blaine's arguments. But as long as politicians can trade on
public credulity by reproducing its ancient corpse, it is well
to remember his pictures of the era of inflation, when men's
minds were turned from honest industry to schemes of financial
gambling, the public morals suffered, old-fashioned integrity
was forgotten, and solid, enduring prosperity, with honest
gains and quiet contentment, was rendered impossible.
So far Mr. Blaine had only to encounter public foes who
opposed the statesman, but did not attack the man. But as
the preparations for the Presidential campaign were approach-
164 BIOGRAPHY OF HON, JAMES G. BLAlNE.
ing other weapons than those of political warfare were
employed. The fact that Mr. Blaine had invested money in
railroad bonds was seized on as a handle to attack his per-
sonal integrity. Kumors damaging to his character were soon
in wide circulation, and an investigation was openly talked
of. On the 24th of April, 1876, he anticipated the attack.
His words were :
For some months past a charge against me has been circu-
lating in private and was recently made public — designing to
show that I had in some indirect manner received the large sum
of 164,000 from the Union Pacific Eailroad Company in 1871 —
for what services or for what purpose has never been stated.
Then, after citing the testimony of Mr. G. H. Kollins, and
Messrs. Morton, Bliss & Co., he states that the charge reap-
peared in another form, to this effect :
That a certain draft was negotiated at the house of Morton,
Bliss & Co., in 1871, through Thomas A. Scott, then President
of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, for the sum of 164,000,
and that $75,000 of the bonds of the Little Eock and Fort Smith
Eailroad Company were pledged as collateral ; that the Union
Pacific Company paid the draft and took up the collateral; that
the cash proceeds of it went to me, end that I had furnished, or
sold, or in some way conveyed or transferred to Thomas A. Scott
these Little Eock and Fort Smith bonds which had been used as
collateral ; that the bonds in reality had belonged to me or some
friend or constituent of mine for whom I was acting. I en-
deavor to state the charge in its boldest form and in all its
phases.
I desire here and now to declare that all and every part of this
story that connects my name with it is absolutely untrue, with-
out one particle of foundation in fact and without a tittle of
evidence to substantiate it. I never had any transaction of any
kind with Thomas A. Scott concerning bonds of the Little Eock
and Fort Smith Eoad or the bonds of any other railroad, or any
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 165
business in any way connected with railroads, directly or indi-
rectly, immediately or remotely. I never had any business
transaction whatever with the Union Pacific Eailroad Company,
or any of its officers or agents or representatives, and never in
any manner received from that company, directly or indirectly,
a single dollar in money, or stocks, or bonds, or any other form
of value. And as to the particular transaction referred to, I
never so much as heard of it until nearly two years after its
alleged occurrence, when it was talked of at the time of the
Credit Mobiher investigation in 1873.
To give a seeming corroboration or foundation to the story
which I have disproved, the absurd rumor has lately appeared
in certain newspapers that T was the owner of from $150,000 to
$250,000 of the Little Kock and Fort Smith Eailroad bonds,
which I received without consideration, and that it was from
these bonds that Thomas A. Scott received his $75,000. The
statement is gratuitously and utterly false.
Let me now, Mr. Speaker, briefly summarize what I have pre-
sented.
First, that the story of my receiving $64,000 or any other sum
of money or other thing of value from the Union Pacific Eailroad
Company, directly or indirectly, or in any form, for myself or
for another, is absolutely disproved by the most conclusive testi-
mony.
Second, that no bond of mine was ever sold to the Atlantic
and Pacific or the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Eailroad Com-
pany, and that not a single dollar of money from either of those '
companies ever went to my profit or benefit.
Third, that instead of receiving bonds of the Little Eock and
Fort Smith road as a gratuity, I never had one except at the
regular market price, and that instead of making a large fortune
out of that company, I have incurred a severe pecuniary loss
from my investment in its securities which I still retain. And
out of such affairs as this grows the popular gossip of large for-
tunes amassed in Congress !
I can hardly expect, Mr. Speaker, that any statement from me
will stop the work of those who have so industriously circulated
166 BIOGEAPHT OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
these calumnies. For montlis past tlie effort has been energetic
and continuous to spread these stories in private circles. Emis-
saries of slander have visited the editorial rooms of leading Ee-
puhlican papers from Boston to Omaha, and whispered of revela-
tions to come that were too terrible even to be spoken in loud
tones. And at last the revelations have been made !
I am now, Mr. Speaker, in the fourteenth year of a not inact-
ive service in this Hall. I have taken and have given blows. I
have, no doubt, said many things in the heat of debate which I
would now gladly recall. I have, no doubt, given votes which in
fuller light I would gladly change. But I have never done any-
thing in my public career for which I could be put to the faint-
est blush in any presence, or for which I cannot answer to
my constituents, my conscience, and the great Searcher of
hearts.
Nothing can be more explicit than this denial. Yet on the
2d of May, Mr. Tarbox, of Massachusetts, introduced a reso-
lution demanding an investigation by the Judiciary Commit-
tee. The resolution was passed, the investigation began ; no
startling disclosures rewarded its labors till on the 30th of
May, Warren Fisher, Jr., of Boston, and James Mulligan, of
the same city, were produced. The story of the Mulligan
letters we leave for an appendix, in which we give the report
from the Congressional Becord, and Mr. Walter W. Phelps'
explanatory letter. It is sufficient here to notice the sugges-
tive coincidence of the attack with the approach of a political
convention, at which it was currently believed Mr. Blaine
would be nominated for the Presidency.
From May to June is one month. Perhaps the gentlemen
of the investigating committee remembered General Warren's
famous command at Bunker Hill, " Don't fire until you see
the white of their eyes." In any event we cannot think it
whoUy accidental that the volley was not fired until victory
seemed already within the grasp of the foe. The coincidence,
BLAINE AS LEADER OF THE PARTY. 167
at all events, has the look of one of those dramatic catas-
trophes which are intended to surprise everybody but the
stage carpenter and the actors.
Mr. Blaine's defense was regarded by his party as complete
and satisfactory. But it was to him a costly vindication ; the
strain was intense, the reaction sudden and severe. On Sun-
day morning, June 11, as he was ascending the steps of the
Kev. Dr. Eankin's church in Washington, he sat down upon
the steps and said to his wife :
" Mamma, my head pains me ; I am afraid I am sunstruck.
Call a carriage ; take me home and send for Dr. Pope."
The news that he was dangerously ill was flashed across the
country and turned the tide of popular sympathy in his favor.
The sunstroke served to close the investigation. Mr. Blaine
never again took his seat in the House of Representatives, nor
was the subject ever resumed by the Congressional Committee,
so far as related to him. With the adjournment of the Na-
tional Convention the occasion of inquiry passed away, and its
promoters lost all interest in the matter.
CHAPTER X.
BLAINE IN THE SENATE.
The Cincinnati Convention, 1876. — The candidates. — Blaine most popular. —
IngersoU's speech. — Hayes (nominated) elected. — Blaine's coolness on
receipt of the news. — His telegram to Hayes. — Blaine on the stump. —
Ohio campaign. — Blaine's memory . — Speech at the Cooper Union. —
Blaine as Senator. — His farewell letter. — His opposition to Hayes' policy.
— Silver Dollar Bill. — The Navy. — The tariff laws. — Outrages at the
polls. — The riders on appropriation bills. — Chinese immigration. —
Blaine's speech. — His letter to Lloyd Garrison. — The State of Maine.
ON Wednesday, June 14, the National Republican Con-
vention met in the city of Cincinnati to nominate the
party candidate for the Presidency. The names most prom-
inently before the country for the nomination were James G.
Blaine of Maine, Roscoe Conkling of New York, Oliver P.
Morton of Indiana, and Benjamin H. Bristow of Kentucky.
In addition to this distinguished list, Ohio presented the name
of her Governor, R. B. Hayes.
Mr. Blaine was unquestionably the choice of a majority of
the Republican party of the country, but he had competitors
of no mean following in Messrs. Conkling and Morton. The
former was then the absolute leader of the dominant political
party in the Empire State, while the iron-willed war-governor
of Indiana had performed services in the most trying hour
of National distress which endeared him to the people of the
Union. He was furthermore the candidate from a pivotal
and uncertain State. Mr. Bristow, as Secretary of the Treas-
ury, had secured the potent vitality of his candidacy from the
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 169
commanding position he held as the chief of the thousands
of minor officials of the Department in every district in the
United States, and his following was of that character which
always proves unreliable when put to the test.
Under such circumstances the Convention assembled, with
Mr, Blaine unquestionably the most prominent member of his
party from a National standpoint, endowed with those charac-
teristics which marked him as the standard-bearer in the
impending contest.
His friends were numerous and active ; they were confident
of triumph, when in the very crisis of their struggle came the
news that the champion for whom they were laboring was
prostrated. All sorts of rumors went abroad. Some said the
sunstroke would prove fatal, or if not fatal to life, would
leave the victim crippled for further intellectual exertion.
Others alleged that the illness was feigned to arouse the
public sympathy. Others again asserted that the attack
was not sunstroke, but apoplexy, from which Blaine could not
possibly recover in time to endure the strain and excitement
of a campaign.
But his friends stood fast and kept their hopes above their
fears. There were no defections. On the day of the Conven-
tion Hon. Eugene Hale received the following telegram :
I am entirely convalescent, suffering only from physical weak-
ness. Impress upon my friends the great depth of gratitude I
feel for the unparalleled steadfastness with which they have
adhered to me in my hour of trial.
J. G. Blaine.
The excitement was great. But Blaine was still the leading
candidate. Hon. Theodore M. Pomeroy, of New York, was
temporary chairman and Hon. Edward McPherson, of Penn-
sylvania, was permanent chairman.
The great city of Cincinnati was filled with excited poli-
170 BIOGEAPHY OF HON. JAMES. G. BLAINE.
ticians, all discussing, criticising, or wildly lauding the various
candidates. In all the cities and large towns of the country,
crowds stood in front of newspaper offices and telegraph
stations with excited anxiety. The great Convention awaited
with an intensity of emotion that none but those who were
there could realize to be true. When the time came to bring
Blaine's name before that body, a silence deep and oppressive
followed the din and uproar of the previous hour. But when
Colonel Eobert G. Ingersoll, of Illinois, ascended the platform
as the advocate for the friends of Blaine, the enthusiasm was
displayed in wild and almost frantic shouts and signals. His
speech that evening, placing Mr. Blaine in nomination, would
have ensured the latter's success, had not an adjournment
been necessitated by the failure of the gas. Said he :
Massachusetts may be satisfied with the loyalty of Benjamin
H. Bristow ; so am I. But if any man nominated by this Con-
vention cannot carry the State of Massachusetts, I am not satisfied
with the loyalty of that State. If the nominee of this Conven-
tion cannot carry the grand old Commonwealth of Massachusetts
by seventy-five thousand majority, I would advise them to sell
out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic headquarters. I would advise
them to take from Bunker Hill that old monument of glory.
The Eepublicans of the United States demand as their leader in
the great contest of 1876 a man of intellect, a man of integrity, a
man of well-known and approved political opinions. They de-
mand a statesman. They demand a reformer after as well as
before the election. They demand a politician in the highest and
broadest and best sense of that word. They demand a man ac-
quainted with public affairs, with the wants of the people, with
not only the requirements of the hour, but the demands of the
future. They demand a man broad enough to comprehend the
relations of this Government to the other nations of the earth.
They demand a man well versed in the powers, duties, and pre-
rogatives of each and every department of this Government.
They demand a man who will sacredly prove the financial honor
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 171
of the United States — one who knows enough to know that the
national debt must be paid through the prosperity of this people.
One who knows enough to know that all the financial theories in
the world cannot redeem a single dollar. One who knows enough
to know that all the money must be made not by hand, but by
labor. One who knows that the people of the United States have
the industry to make the money and the honesty to pay it over
just as fast as they make it. The Kepublicans of the United
States demand a man who knows that prosperity and resumption
when they come must come together. When they come they
will come hand in hand; hand in hand through the golden har-
vest-fields; hand in hand by the whirling spindle and the turning
wheel ; hand in hand by the open furnace-doors, hand in hand
by the flaming forges, hand in hand by the chimneys filled with
eager fire by the hands of the countless sons of toil. This money
has got to be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by
passing resolutions at a political meeting. The Eepublicans of
the United States want a man who knows that this Government
should protect every citizen at home and abroad ; who knows that
every government that will not defend its defenders and will not
protect its protectors is a disgrace to the mass of the world.
They demand a man who believes in the eternal separation of
church and the schools. They demand a man whose political
reputation is spotless as a star, bat they do not demand that
their candidate shall have a certificate of moral character signed
by a Confederate Congress. The man who has in full habit and
rounded measure all of these splendid qualifications is the present
grand and gallant leader of the Eepublican party, James G.
Blaine. Our country, crowned with the vast and marvelous
achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of its
past, prophetic of its future — asks for a man who has the audacity
of genius — asks for a man who is the grandest combination of
heart, conscience, and brains beneath the flag. That man is
James G. Blaine. For the Eepublican host, led by that intrepid
man, there can be no defeat. This is a grand year — a year filled
with the recollections of the Eevolution ; filled with proud and
tender memories of the sacred past; filled with the legends of
172 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES. G. BLAINE.
liberty ; a year in which the sons of Freedom will drink from the
fountains of enthusiasm ; a year in which the people call for a
man who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon
the field; a year in which we call for the man that has torn from
the throat of treason the tongue of slander; a man that has
snatched the mask of democracy from the hideous face of rebel-
lion; a man who, hke an intellectual athlete, stood in the arena
of debate, challenged all comers, and. who up to this moment is a
total stranger to defeat. Like an armed warrior, like a plumed
knight, James Gr. Blaine marched down the halls of the Ameri-
can Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against
the brazen forehead of every defamer of his country and maligner
of its honor. For the Kepublican party to desert that gallant
man now is worse than if an army should desert their general on
the field of battle. James C Blaine is now and has been for
years the bearer of the sacred standard of the Eepublic. I call it
sacred because no human being can stand beneath its folds with-
out becoming and without remaining free. Gentlemen of the
Convention, in the name of the Great Eepublic — the only Ee-
public that ever existed upon this earth — in the name of all her
defenders and all her supporters; in the name of all her soldiers
living, in the name of all her soldiers who died upon the field of
battle, and in the name of those that perished in the skeleton
clutch of famine at Andersonville and Libby — whose sufferings he
so eloquently remembers — Illinois nominates for the next Presi-
dent of this country that prince of parliamentarians, that leader
of leaders, James G. Blaine.
Mr. Blaine's opponents estimated his strength on the first
ballot at 286 votes ; the tellers counted 285. The sixth baUot
gave him 308 votes, to 113 for Mr. Hayes ; but a combination
of the forces of Conkling and Morton in favor of the Ohio Gov-
ernor resulted in his nomination on the seventh ballot by a vote
of 384, Mr. Blaine receiving 351 votes, and Mr. Bristow 21.
The coolness and the self-possession with which Mr. Blaine
received the news is characteristic of the man. One who was
present at the time tells the story :
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 173
" I happened to be in bis library in Washington when the
balloting was going on in Cincinnati on that hot June day in
1876. A telegraph instrument was on his library table, and
Mr. Sherman, his private secretary, a deft operator, was manip-
ulating its key. Dispatches came from dozens of friends giv-
ing the last votes, which only lacked a few of a nomination,
and everybody predicted the success of Blaine on the next
ballot. Only four persons besides Mr. Sherman were in the
room. It was a moment of great excitement. The next vote
was quietly ticked over the wire, and then the next announced
the nomination of Mr. Hayes. Mr. Blaine was the only cool
person in the apartment. It was such a reversal of all an-
ticipations and assurances that self-possession was out of the
question except with Mr. Blaine. He had just left his bed
after two days of unconsciousness with sunstroke, but he was
as self-possessed as the portraits on the wall. He merely gave
a murmur of surprise, and before anybody had recovered from
the surprise, he had written, in a firm, fluent hand, three dis-
patches— ^now in my possession — one to Mr. Hayes of con-
gratulation :
To Gov. K. B. Hayes, Columbus, Ohio.
I offer you my sincerest congratulations on your nomination.
It will be alike my highest pleasure as well as my first political
duty to do the utmost in my power to promote your election.
The earliest moments of my returning and confirmed health will
be devoted to securing you as large a vote in Maine as she would
have given for myself.
J. G. Blain^e.
one to the Maine delegates thanking them for their devotion,
and another to Eugene Hale and Mr. Frye, asking them to go
personally to Mr. Hayes, at Columbus, and present his good-
will, with promises of hearty aid in the campaign. The oc-
174 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
casion affected him no more than the news of a servant quit-
ting his employ would have done. Half an hour afterward he
was out with Secretary Fish in an open carriage, receiving the
cheers of the thousands of people who were gathered about the
telegraph bulletins."
When the campaign opened he made his word of promise
to Mr. Hayes good, in more than seventy speeches delivered
in twelve closely contested States. In Maine, New Hamp-
shire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and -Wisconsin, he presented
with untiring zeal and convincing power the issues of the
campaign. His speeches were usually made in the open air,
for no hall was large enough to contain the crowds that
thronged to hear him. At Troy, N. Y., he addressed 20,000
people, the largest political meeting held in the State since
the campaign of 1844, of "which Daniel Webster and Horace
Greeley were the great speakers. At Cooper Union, in New
York City, equal enthusiasm prevailed, and the air, it is said,
was black with hats and white with handkerchiefs. At
Chicago, Grand Kapids, Detroit, Toledo, thousands upon
thousands paid homage to his eloquence. In Ohio, Hayes
rallies were advertised as Blaine meetings, and banners and
transparencies bearing his name were carried in the procession.
The popular enthusiasm which everywhere greeted him was a
notable triumph for one who a few months before had been
forced to defend his honorable name in the halls of Congress.
Judge Thurman tells an anecdote of this Ohio campaign,
which is worthy of note, as it in some degree will show whence
comes Blaine's influence with the people :
All the people of both parties turned out to hear him. I have
among my clients a prominent old farmer, who is one of the
wealthiest men in the county. He was a good Republican, and
after Blaine got through speaking, and was shaking hands with
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. Vt6
everybody, t saw my old client in the crowd looking on at the
orator of the day rather interestedly.
I said to him, '* Squire Brown" (that is not his name, but it
will do here), "would you like to know Mr. Blaine ?"
Of course he said he would ; so I took him to the Maine states-
man and introduced him, at the same time telling Blaine who
he was. Blaine's eye was instantly caught by the handsome
appearance and style of his trotters. One of them particularly
pleased him, and he said to my client that the colt should be
trained, as it would make a very superior trotter. Well, after
a five minutes' talk, Blaine went away.
In 1880 he came into Ohio again and to my town. He spoke
to an immense audience as usual. In the crowd was my old
Kepublican client. Squire Brown. He was waiting in the out-
skirts of the audience, wondering if Mr. Blaine would remember
him if he went to speak to him. All at once Blaine caught
sight of the old man. He went straight up to him, called his
name, and after a few words said :
" Squire Brown, did you ever train the near colt of that team
you were driving when I was here four years ago ? I have often
thought of that colt, and I believe he would make a great horse
if trained."
"Now," said Judge Thurman, "here was a man who had
made a canvass for the Presidency, and had a nation's labor
almost on his shoulders, and yet so wonderful was his memory
that the least incident fixed itself there and was never forgot-
ten. I have never known any one in my day with a memory
like that, and now I begin to understand why it is that
Blaine's popularity is so much greater than any other man in
his party."
In all parts his reception was one of the most astonishing
ovations ever seen in the country.
It seemed to be generally believed that Mr. Blaine would be
the successor of General Hayes in the Presidency, and many
expressed their devotion to him as they took him by the hand.
176 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
in such words as these : " Sorry we cannot vote for you this
time, but we will next/' and " Thank the Lord I have got a
chance to take you by the hand," and many other similar ex-
pressions.
His reception at the hall of the Cooper Union was one of
the grandest political demonstrations which New York had
ever witnessed. In every respect the audience was one which
reflected credit upon the intelligence and patriotism of the
metropolis.
The appearance of the ex-Speaker was the signal for a most
enthusiastic and tumultuous reception. Men cheered until
they were hoarse, women waved their handkerchiefs, and for
full five minutes the air resounded with the continuous ap-
plause. When the noise of his welcome had sufficiently sub-
sided, Mr. Blaine advanced to the front of the platform and
spoke for an hour and a half. His exposure of the meanness,
duplicity, and false pretenses of the Democratic Confederate
House was telling, and was received with thunders of applause
from the entire assemblage. His tribute to the courage of the
Eepublican Senate in resisting the arrogant demands of the
ex-rebel Kepresentatives, called forth a renewed tempest of
cheering, while his description of the servile submission of the
Northern Democratic majority to the Southern Democratic
minority was a masterpiece of sarcasm and indignation. The
scene when Mr. Blaine left the rostrum was a repetition of
his welcome.
On July 10, 1876, Mr. Blaine became, by appointment of
Governor Connor, of Maine, the junior Senator from that
State, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. Lot M. Morrill, who
had resigned to accept the Secretaryship of the Treasury. In
the following year he was elected for the full term. In ac-
cepting the appointment, Mr. Blaine wrote to his constitu-
ents :
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 177
Beginning "with 1862 you liave, by continuous elections, sent
me as your representative to the Congress of the United States.
For such marked confidence I have endeavored to, return the
most zealous and devoted service in my power, and it is certainly
not without a feeling of pain that I now surrender a trust by
which I have always felt so signally honored. It has been my
boast, in public and in private, that no man on the floor of Con-
gi-ess ever represented a constituency more distinguished for in-
telligence, for patriotism, for public and personal virtue. The
cordial support you have so uniformly given me through these
fourteen eventful years, is the chief honor of my life. In closing
the intimate relations I have so long held with the people of this
district, it is a great satisfaction to me to know that with return-
ing health I shall enter upon a field of duty in which I can still
serve them in common with the larger constituency of which
they form a part."
Mr. Blaine's parliamentary experience, his familiarity with
public and political questions, and his acknowledged position
as a party leader, gave him at once an influence in the Senate
not often accorded to a new member. He spoke to attentive
ears on almost every important measure which came up for
discussion. He opposed the Electoral Commission Bill on the
ground that Congress had not the power to confer upon the
Commission the authority with which it was proposed to invest
that body ; and as a way out of the difficulty and as a perma-
nent safeguard against the recurrence of a like crisis in the
future, he urged the passage of "a Constitutional amendment
which, would empower the Supreme Court of the United
States to peacefully and promptly settle the questions growing
out of the disputed electoral votes."
He opposed President Hayes' Southern policy, especially
condemning his action in recognizing Democratic State gov-
ernments in Soutb Carolina and Louisiana in the spring of
1877.
V78 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMfiS G. BLAINE.
On the question of the navy, two speeches delivered in the
Senate, January 22, 1879, and January 27, 1881, clearly de-
fined Mr. Blaine's position. The substance of his views is
given in the following extracts :
In any remarks I shall make on the Naval Appropriation Bill,
Mr. President, I desire to say in advance that neither in word
nor spirit do I intend to criticise the administration of the Navy
Department, either present or past, and still less do I intend by
the remotest possible implication to make any reflection upon
the gallant corps of officers that make up the navy of the United
States. I have no desire nor have I any grounds to reflect on
either, and if I reflect on any department of the Government it
will be on that of which I have had the honor to form a part for
a considerable number of years. If there be any fault to be
criticised, if there be any practice to be reformed, if there be any
reorganization that is desirable and demanded, it is for Congress
to do it ; and if it should have been made before, it is the fault
of Congress not to have made it, and not the fault of either
secretary, or bureau chief, or line, or staff, or warrant-officer, in
the navy.
At the same time, I must speak my mind very freely about
what I consider the present condition of the navy, and first and
especially about the large number of officers the navy contains.
We have limited the navy by law to 7,500 men, and for those
7,500 men, taking in commissioned officers of staff and line and
warrant-officers, and not counting the retired list, of course,
which should not be brought into discussion, we have a total of
2,020 officers, or we have to-day one officer to three men and a
fraction in the navy. That is excessive. I should infer so with-
out any knowledge on the subject, and of course as to the organ-
ization of the navy I do not profess to know much; but I should
infer on the mere statement that it was excessive ; and to prove
that it must be excessive, I have here the last register of the
British navy. Our navy, as I have said, is limited to 7,500 men.
We have in all in the navy to-day ninety-one vessels. We have
thirty-eight to-day, I believe, in commission, as the terra is, and
Blaine in the senate. 179
we have, as I have already remarked, 2,020 officers. Take the
British navy, which has 320 steam-vessels of war, and a total,
including all that belongs to the navy, of 494 vessels. They
have 4,990 officers, with something over 60,000 men, in the
navy. They have available for naval service more than five
times the vessels in number and far more than that proportion
in effective force ; and while they have between nine and ten
times as many sailors as we have, they have less than twice and
a half the number of officers. Or, if you choose to take it in
another form, tln:owing out the warrant-officers and taking
simply the officers of the line, rejecting the staff, we show a total
of about 800, and counting the cadets, who are counted also in
the British computation, we show about 1,000, and the British
show against that about 2,300.
The comparison is quite as discouraging if we look at the
French navy, which has a total number of line officers of 1,529 ;
and I also hold the French naval register in my hand, or a book
which contains the statistics. The French navy, in point of
number of vessels, is almost as large as the British navy. Of
course, we all know that it is not so effective, but it is many
times as large as ours, and yet the line officers of the navy of
France are not more than double the line officers of the navy of
the United States, possibly a shade more than double. I infer
that these facts are worthy of our attention. I infer that we are
having a navy far more numerous in the department of officers
than we require to the number of ships or the number of men to
which we have limited it by law.
Take the navy-yards. For the immense navy of Great Britain,
the largest and most effective in the world, there are in the
whole island two great navy-yards, Chatham and Portsmouth,
and two subordinate ones at Sheerness and Devonport, making
in all four. The French navy has three principal yards, Cher-
bourg, Brest, and Toulon, and two subordinate ones at Eoche-
fort and Lorient. We have on this coast, from latitude 37° to
latitude 43°, on six degrees of coast latitude, seven navy-yards.
We have one at Washington, one at Norfolk, one at Philadelphia,
one at New York, one in posse if not in esse at New London,
180 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
one at Charlestown, and one at Kittery or Portsmouth. Of
course, that is beyond all possible requirement of our navy. "We
have one at Pensacola, which it is presumed it is necessary to re-
tain for the Gulf uses, and certainly the one on the Pacific coast
is absolutely essential; but that any person can infer that on six
degrees of our coast latitude we need seven navy-yards is a vast
stretch of imagination.
I might have said, when I was disclaiming any possible inten-
tion of either arraigning the civil department of the navy or the
line ofl&cers themselves, that I have no intention of making any
partisan accusation, and still less any intention of making any
partisan confession. I do not desire to inculpate either party or
to exculpate either, and so far as all these navy-yards, except the
shadowy one at New London, are concerned, they come down to
us from " the good old days of Democratic economy." We in-
herited them, and we inherited one more which we have
abandoned ; that is, the one at Memphis. That was a brilliant
streak of economy, of course, to put a navy-yard at Memphis,
800 or 1,000 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi Eiver. The
old story went that the navy-yard at Memphis was put through
Congress because the two rival candidates for Governor in Ten-
nessee, preceding the great contest of 1844 between Mr. Clay and
Mr. Polk, both came here, and the Democrat said to a Demo-
cratic Congress : " If you do not put this navy-yard through, I
am dead;" and the Whig candidate said : "If you Whigs do not
vote for it, it will kill us at home." And so they got a pretty
nearly unanimous vote for the Memphis navy-yard. And they
might as well have put one above the Falls of St. Anthony. It
went on in a sort of sickly condition for ten, fifteen, or twenty
years, not being finally dismantled until the war.
There is, of course, a vast and useless expenditure in the navy-
yards, and a larger and overwhelming expenditure in that departr
ment which we do not, in any event, need.
And when you come to the pay of the navy, of course it shows
just this proportion. If you have officers you must pay them,
and the pay oJ navy officers in the bill which is now before the
Senate is for officers in commission $3,822,875, for retired officers
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 181
$645,400, and for some other civilian attaches that come under
the head of officers, embraced in the fifty-third line and lines fol-
lowing, $475,000, making a total of 14,943,275, or of round
numbers five million dollars. Next as to the men. For the
petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, and boys, in-
cluding men in the engineer-force and for the coast-survey ser-
vice, for all that are included in any form, direct or indirect, in
the navy, we pay $2,300,000 ; so that of what is called the pay of
the navy more than two-thirds, nearly five-sevenths, are required
for officers, showing, of course, the top-heavy condition that the
register shows in regard to the navy.
From the Naval Academy, for the last fourteen years since the
war, we have added an average of fifty officers per annum to the
navy, and we are continuing to do it. The rule now is the very
same that it is at West Point, or was until last year we had some
legislation upon the subject, that any boy who graduates at the
Naval Academy, after being duly appointed, shall be commis-
sioned as an officer in the navy. That was so in regard to West
Point until the legislation of last year. Congress, by a pretty
nearly unanimous vote in both branches, has decided in regard to
the graduates at West Point that those only shall be appointed to
offices in the army for whom there are vacancies at the time of
graduation. I think that ought to be the case in regard to the
navy ; if not, you are Hable to add from fifty to seventy-five
officers annually to our navy, and there is no limit now fixed by
law at all to the lower grade. We fix the limit down to ensigns,
but for midshipmen there is no limit at all, and you may pile
in midshipmen until they are there by the thousand for that mat-
ter if you take time enough, and at the rate at which retirement
or death thins out the upper grades of the navy you will find
such a disparity between the incoming and the outgoing as must
lead to a steady annual increase in the officers of the navy.
Now, I ask simply that, after 1883, graduation at the Naval
Academy shall not of itself entitle a man to be commissioned in
the navy, but that only such number shall be commissioned for
whom there are vacancies in the navy at the time, leaving the
academic board to determine that on the merit of the graduates.
182 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
I put it at 1883, just as last year the legislation respecting "West
Point was put at 1882, for the simple reason that the boys who
have been appointed to the Naval Academy, just as those who
were appointed to West Point, went there with the understanding
and, if you choose, with the pledge, from the United States, that,
upon graduation, they should be appointed to ofl&ce, and I cer-
tainly would not break the faith of the United States to the naval
cadet, but let every one who has been entered with that under-
standing under the law have its full benefit ; but if you make the
law now for the next year, the naval cadet who enters under-
stands from that day that his entrance upon the naval list of the
United States depends upon the merit of his graduation, and that
only those shall be selected from the graduating-class for whom
there are vacancies at the time.
It seems to me that this is entirely just, and in the case of
West Point, and of the Naval Academy also, I do not think it
will be any harm to graduate a very large number who are not
entered in the army or navy. They will have no ground to find
fault certainly. They will have received great educational ad-
vantages as a gratuity from their Government ; they are equipped
for the battle of life ; and if ever the Government has need of
their services, as it unfortunately did in a recent era, they will
come in the future as they did in the past— for there was a very
small number of graduates at West Point that did not find their
way into the army, on one side or the other, during the late war ;
and so it will be in the future. You will have a military knowl-
edge spread throughout the country, and, no matter how many
shall graduate there at the public expense under the present or-
ganization, let only those be put upon the regular army hst who
stand highest, and who are for the time being needed to fill
vacancies actually existing.
Mr. President, of course I would not do a harsh thing to the
naval officers. I have no proposition to make except that a naval
board composed of officers themselves shall tell us what we ought
to do. I would not turn out an officer who had a good record,
and who had devoted the best years of his life to the service of
the United States ; but by retirement, made larger than it now is
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 183
by some form which is easily to be devised by men who take the
subject into consideration, we can bring down our men to the
proper proportion of officers and men ; and we can, by dispensing
with the surplus number, and by dispensing with useless navy-
yards, and in other ways, reduce the naval expenses of this
country by a very large figure.
And then, connected with this, and of more interest to me
than any other part of it,- is the fact that we are trying the im-
possible experiment of building a navy from the top. It never
has been done, and it never will be done in this world. You
cannot make a navy by graduating cadets at Annapolis. It is in
that respect different from an army. Our experience in the last
war, on both sides, shows that men make good soldiers in three
months, and in a year they are veterans. That is not the case
with the navy. You cannot improvise a sailor any more than
you can improvise a mountain. He has to grow, and you cannot
grow him as an exotic. You cannot grow a sailor in your navy
unless there is a surrounding commercial atmosphere, unless there
is a great mercantile marine that shall continually replenish it
and build it up from the bottom. There never has been a navy
in this world worth anything that did not grow out of a mercan-
tile marine ; there never will be. In regard to our mercantile
marine the contrast since some of us here entered Congress, the
contrast since the beginning of the war with the present time, is
very startling. When we needed a blockade from the mouth of
the Eio Grande to the capes of the Delaware we had 70,000
sailors on board our ships. Eight thousand sailors were enlisted
in one town in my own State, the city of Portland ; 32,000 sailors
were enlisted at Boston. I should like any man to get 8,000 sail-
ors enlisted at Portland or 22,000 at Boston to-day. They are
gone. Our mercantile marine, by a variety of causes, is swept
away, and of the causes leading to its destruction too much has
been attributed, in my judgment, to the effects of the war. The
war had a great deal to do with it ; but had that been simply the
cause we would have recovered from it, for its effect was in its
nature temporary. But the real cause was deeper and far more
serious than the four years' war, however serious that was.
184 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
The war only gave an opportunity to our rivals. If there had
not been new conditions, we should have been able, after the
war, to have recovered ourselves. But those new conditions
were and are to-day, as has been repeated here over and over
again on this side of the chamber and on that : those conditions
are that the commerce of the world has entirely changed, and
you might just as well attempt to arm your soldiers with bows
and arrows as to rebuild the mercantile marine of the United
States by a mere increase of sailing-vessels. The marine of the
future, more and more every day, is a steam marine, and we who
stand here furnishing a larger amount of freight than any other
country in the world — I was going to say any other two coun-
tries ; I doubt if there be any two countries in the world that
furnish as large an amount of ocean freight as the United
States — we stand here to-day gaining nothing whatever out of
that, or so little that it only serves to "point the moral." We
furnished last year 13,000,000 tons of ocean freight, and the
profit on carrying that and the passengers that belong to the sea
was $115,000,000.
Mr. Thurman — Does that include the coasting trade ?
Mr. Blaine — No; wholly foreign. It all went from our
shores and came back. That which goes of course is more
bulky when you measure it by tons than that which comes.
Mr, Eaton — Over $80,000,000 in gold was paid into the
pockets of foreign shipowners.
Mr. Blaine — My friend anticipates me in that. Nearly
$89,000,000 out of $115,000,000 was so paid into foreign hands ;
I believe only $26,000,000 into ours; and that has been going
on and is going on and will continue to go on unless the United
States does something that shall change it. And we cannot
afford not to change it. I say to the Honorable Chairman of
the Committee of Finance that unless conditions that we dare
not anticipate should continue to favor us, it is not a possible
thing in this country to maintain over a long series of years
specie payment here with that draught made upon our resources ;
and with that draught stopped, specie payment will maintain
itself. Gentlemen here remember the panic of 1857, how it
Blaine in the senate. 185
smote the country, how it went over the continent with the
force and violence of a tornado, prostrating great mercantile
houses and manufacturing and commercial interests, and yet
inside of ninety days from the suspension of specie payment the
banks of New York, Baltimore, and all tbe great cities of the
country resumed. Why were they able to resume specie payment
after that disastrous panic ? Simply because the freight moneys
that lay to the credit of American commerce in London were
gold to be called on by those who here needed it for the resump-
tion of specie payments, and the gold that was deposited in
London to the credit of American ship-masters and American
ship-owners was the very gold on which the banks of this country
resumed in 1858, and that is the gold that we do not have to-
day. We should have had no need, we should have been under
no necessity, of selling bonds to buy gold to resume specie pay-
ments, if our fair share of the freight moneys on our own com-
merce had been coming into our coffers. Eighty-nine million
dollars went last year into the coffers of Europe on American
freight ; less than $26,000,000 came here. Give us our fair share,
and specie payment, I repeat, will maintain itself. * * * *
Take a 1500,000 ship ; a ship of about 3,000 or 3,500 tons, and
a steamship of that size first-class, fully equipped for freight and
passengers, costs just about a half-million of dollars. There is
not a single thing that goes into that ship from the time her keel
is laid until she is ready for sea that cannot be produced in this
country, and that is not produced in this country, except tin —
the few dollars' worth of tin in her.
Mr. Dorsey — We have tin in California.
Mr. Blaine — I am corrected. I am told that California pro-
duces tin. But you may take all the hundred things that go
into that vessel, and they are all produced in this country, from
the tree in the forest to the ore in the mine ; and what does my
honorable friend from Connecticut, who knows more of statistics
than I do, say is the value of the raw material, and when you get
that $500,000 ship ready for the sea, what part of her represents
actual material and what part labor ? There is five thousand
dollars' worth of material in her, and four hundred and ninety-
186
BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
five thonsaiid dollars' worth of labor. Begin with the iron in the
ore and the wood in the tree, and you have only five thousand
dollars' worth of material in a thirty -five-hundred-ton ship, and
every particle of the remainder has been produced and inwrought
and upbuilt by American labor, and I understand my friend from
Connecticut to insist that we had better have that $495,000 ex-
pended on the other side.
Three-fourths, I do not know but I may overstate it, but cer-
tainly one-half the report of the Secretary of the Navy is devoted
to the commerce of the country, and a very able report it is. It
does him honor. I certainly am not out of order in discussing
on the naval bill that to which the head of the department him-
self devotes so large a portion of his report. I say again, that
what may be saved out of the naval appropriation will do that
which I have already adverted to for American commerce. We
do not show any of this, can I call it stinginess ? in any other
department. We have given 200,000,000 acres of public land to
railroads : we have given $60,000,000 in money ; and taking the
value of those lands and the value of that money, and adding
them together, it is safe to say that we have endowed railroads in
this country with $500,000,000.
' From 1846 to 1871, the Congress of the United States passed
ninety-one acts for promoting the building of railroads. There
has not been much legislation since 1871. There has been a re-
action against the policy, but from 1846 to 1871, I repeat, a
period of twenty-five years, the Congress of the United States
passed ninety-one different acts and endowed the railroad system
of this country with $500,000,000 of money, and that $500,000,-
000 of money produced more than $5,000,000,000 of money in
this country. My judgment is that the Congress of the United
States, in everything they did in that respect, did wisely. They
cheapened freights. Clinton's Ditch, as it used to be called, was
sneered at when it was an experiment, but the minute the water
was let into it, it reduced the freights that had been $100 from
Buffalo to New York down to $7 a ton ; and it is not an exag-
geration to say that at that day, before railroads were among us,
the water that was let in from Lake Erie to that canal added
$100,000,000 to the value of the farms west of it.
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 187
As individuals, cities, towns, counties. States, a nation, we
have exerted ourselves to the utmost point of enterprise and
vigor to build up railroads. We have a system that outruns all
the world, and with great trunk lines threading the continent
north, south, east, and west, in every direction. The very mo-
ment we reach the ocean limit, we seem to think we have done
our duty, and that when we have got transportation to that
point it no longer interests us, and we can safely give that over
to the foreigner. Why, from Chicago to Liverpool is one direct
line. I wonder how it would sound if Mr. Vanderbilt, who is
running a line of steamships manned by foreign men, command-
ed by foreign ofl&cers, built in foreign yards, whose money earn-
ings go entirely outside of this country, were to apply that to the
New York Central Eailroad, and select all the brakemen and
switchmen and conductors and tenders and officers on the Cen-
tral Eailroad from foreigners ; to put all the locomotives on it
that are made in England ; to let all its earnings be exported.
Such a policy would not be one particle more detrimental and
destructive to the interests of this country than for us, when that
Central Railroad has touched salt water, with all the countless
products of the fertile West, to give up all the profits of partici-
pation in the transportation of them beyond. From Chicago to
Liverpool is a route of four thousand miles. We operate one
thousand miles of it, and give three thousand miles to the for-
eigner.
Our ancestors of the last generation were not so squeamish on
this subject. They were not afflicted with theories ; they were
intensely practical, and after the peace of 1815 following the war
of 1813 our commerce ran ahead of Great Britain's to such an
extent that absolute alarm seized England. During the admin-
istration of John Quincy Adams, in a single year of the com-
merce between this country and Europe, one hundred and forty-
five millions were carried in American vessels, and only fourteen
millions in those of other nations. The commerce amounted to
about one hundred and sixty millions, and American vessels car-
ried one hundred and forty-fiv6 millions of it ; and I beg the
Senator from Connecticut to remember that then in Parliament,
188 SlOGEAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
and then through all their chambers of commerce, and then
throughout all the commercial agencies of Great Britain, an
agitation was made that they would import free ships from
America. They did not do it. They concluded that that would
be their utter and jBmal ruin, and that they never could catch up
with us if they did that, and they resisted it ; and they resisted
it up to the point and until the time when they had got so far
ahead by aid from Government, by the upbuilding of a great
commerce, that they could successfully defy and laugh at com-
petition. Then came in their free-shipping act ; and the policy
which the Senator from Connecticut invites us to to-day is pre-
cisely that which free-traders in this country on looking at
England will find that she took into consideration and con-
demned and rejected in 1827 and 1828 ; and the English marine
would never have been what it is to-day, had they not at that
time stood just where we ought to stand to-day.
I referred to 1817, to the generation that immediately pre-
ceded us ; and I address my remarks to that side of the cham-
ber, because they claim a more distinct inheritance from the
Jefferson and Madison and Monroe era. Mr. Monroe in 1817
had just come to the Presidency. We had passed an act which,
if it were passed to-day, would revive American commerce with
such a rapidity and thrill as would astonish people on both sides
of the water. We passed an act providing that the products of
no country should come into the United States except in
American vessels or in the vessels of the producing country, and
we held it there for years and years. These triangular voyages
that sap the life out of our commerce could not be made under
that law.
**** ******
Then again, when you say that we are not able to build an
American ship in competition with foreign ships, and that we
can get other ships cheaper if we will throw open the registry, do
not my friends from Connecticut and Kentucky both see that if
that be the necessity of to-day it will be far more the necessity
to-morrow ? It will be a much greater necessity the next day ;
and it will continue to be so much a necessity that in the course
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 189
of a very short time the art of ship-building in this country will
have been lost. Senators talk to us about what the nations of
Europe do, and say that Germany gets her ships from England,
and that other nations get them from abroad. There are but
two great naval powers in the world, or able to be great naval
powers. The United States and Great Britain are the naval
powers of this world ; and the idea that with a continent con-
taining the resources we have, with a population possessing the
skill we do, with all the traditions and all the inducements that
surround and govern the case, a Senator can rise in the Ameri-
can Senate and propose that the American flag be struck and
that foreigners be invited to build our ships, and that we in turn
agree to be dependent on them for a navy as well as for com-
merce, is a most extraordinary spectacle, if I may use the phrase.
I will state my views on this subject, and 1 shall take the
privilege of bringing the Senate to some vote that will test its
sense on that question. My idea is that the Government of the
United States should give to any man or company of men aid
from the Treasury of the United States if he or they shall estab-
lish and maintain a line of steamships to any foreign port, or I
might limit it to European, South American, and Asiatic ports.
I would invite competition from San Francisco, from Portland,
• Oregon, from Galveston, from New Orleans, from Mobile, from
Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, Norfolk, Baltimore, New
York, Boston, Portland, and everywhere. I would let all come
in who can sustain it. The touchstone is what will be sustained
by the trade, and that you can safely leave to the instinct and to
the knowledge of American commercial men.
There is no reason in the world why Savannah, that caused the
first ship by steam to be sent across the Atlantic, I believe,
going from her port and bearing her name, should not be a great
seaport. There is certainly no reason why a very great foreign
trade should not be concentrated at New Orleans. Some might
try that could not probably sustain the enterprise, but there are
various points throughout the country on our ocean-front that
would maintain with vigor, with success, and with pride to them-
selves and the country, great lines of steamships to all the foreign
190 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
ports in the world. I am radical on the question. I do not
suppose the American Congress would go so far as I would, for
I would certainly vote directly for the revival of the act of 1817,
and I would write as the law of America for the present that the
products of any country should come to the United States either
in vessels of the exporting country or in our own. If that
sounds like unfriendly legislation, if it sounds like extreme legis-
lation, if it involves some contradiction of the policy of the last
twenty-five or thirty years, let it he said that we are legislating
for an extreme case, and extreme cases require extreme remedies.
We carried five-sevenths of the American commerce when the
war broke out. We do not carry one quarter to-day, and if we
come out of the deep abyss of humiliation that we are in, we
will come out of it by vigorous and strong-nerved and daring
legislation, if you please. I would open it to all the business of
the country, but I would put the race between American skill
and the skill of all the world, with the utmost possible confidence
that, sustained by this Government in the race, we would win.
It is in our people. With an equal chance we can beat them.
But, with the present condition of things, a hope for the revival
of American commerce is as idle a hope as ever entered the brain
of an insane man. Our trade is falling off one or two per cent,
per annum as we stand to-day. It was less this year than it
was last. It was less last year than it was the year before.
It will be less next year than this.
I know no question that can in any manner engage the atten-
tion of the American Senate that is more worthy of their serious
consideration and their deep deliberation than this. It is more
far-reaching than any question before us, for I repeat, as I inti-
mated, that with this steady drain out of us, this drain of
185,000,000 a year, in gold coin, this country cannot expect with
confidence to maintain a specie basis. An adverse crop, a bad
year, a balance of trade against us, and with the whole commer-
cial marine in the hands of foreigners, we put specie payment
and American solvency and American prosperity to a test that I
shall grieve to see applied, and the result of which would be, I
fear, most disastrous.
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 191
We voted $1,500,000 for the navy without thinking. Anything
that gets in the rut of an appropriation goes easily. You voted
money this year because you did last ; we will vote it next year
because we did this. Bayard Taylor used to tell a funny story
to the effect that in the Eussian budget there appeared every year
fifty rubles for goose-grease for the prince's nose. He said that
one hundred and fifty years ago there was a sore nose on one of
the princes, and goose-grease was prescribed for it, and so fifty
rubles came into the budget ; and although a sore nose has not
since been known in the royal family, the fifty rubles have been
annually appropriated. Our appropriations run on in the same
rut, and we need a stirring up from the bottom and a wholesome
change.
When I speak thus I speak, I am sure, as a friend of the navy ;
I come from the portion of the country that feels great interest
in and great sympathy with the navy. But a navy cannot be
maintained as a fancy attachment to the Government. The navy
must have uses. The United States steam-frigate Tennessee has
just returned from a three years' cruise. I sent to the Navy De-
partment, and regret that I cannot have it in time to read it
here to-day, for a statement of the expenses of that three years'
cruise. I might be wild probably if I should venture to give the
figures without the data, and therefore I will not do so ; but I
venture to say that it will surprise every member of the Senate.
And I venture to say that on all that long three years' cruise, in
all the waters, in all the oceans, on all the shores, the rarest thing
the Tennessee met in her travels was an American ship, and
almost the only flag she saw bearing the Stars and Stripes was at
her own masthead.
We want a navy, but we want something for it to do. We want
a navy to protect the commerce, but we want a commerce in ad-
vance for the navy to protect, and we want a commerce that
shall not be one of favoritism, a commerce that shall not benefit
one section at the expense of another, but one that shall be equal
and just and generous and profitable to all. You will never get
it by making this nation a tributary to Great Britain. You will
never get it by banishing the art of ship-building from among our
192 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
people. You will never get it by discouraging all possible aspi-
rations for maritime and commercial supremacy, by a public
proclamation from Congress that after nearly a century of gal-
lant struggle, in which more than three-quarters of the time we
were ahead in the race, on account of an accidental mishap that
put us behind, we of to-day, not having the nerve or the sagacity
of those who went before us, sank before the prospect, and asked
other nations to do for us what we have lost the munhood and
the energy to do for ourselves.
SHALL WE BUILD OUR SHIPS AT HOME ?
Mr. President : If the Senate will indulge me, I should like
a few moments, not to reply with any elaboration to what the
Senator from Kentucky has said, but to speak very briefly on
the various points suggested by him. I should not like to have
such a speech as he has delivered go out from the Senate of the
United States unanswered for a single day, and I propose, there-
fore, to review his position, at least in part. I regret that I am
compelled to speak without preparation, and with no data except
such ^s I recall from memory.
The first observation I desire to submit is, that the honorable
Senator from Kentucky very frankly admits, and did not even
attempt to argue against it, that this policy looks forward to a
permanent dependence of the United States upon England for
her ships. The only slight attempt that the Senator made to re-
but the conclusion was in the faint hope expressed by him that the
repair-shops which would grow up on this side of the water might
develop into machine-shops and ship-yards large enough and numer-
ous enough to construct steam vessels ; but throughout the entire
argument of the Senator he went upon the presumption, which Ire-
peat he did not even attempt himself to rebut, that his policy looked
to a proclaimed and a permanent dependence of this country upon
England for a merchant' marine. I do not believe the Senate
of the United States, or the Congress of the United States, or
the people of the United States are prepared to make that
declaration.
. It is a fact equally remarkable that for the past twenty-five
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 193
years— or make it only for the past twenty years, from the begin-
ning of the war to this hour — the Congress of the United States
has not done one soHtary thing to uphold the navigation interests
of the United States. Decay has been observed going on steadily
from year to year. The great march forward of our commercial
rival of old has been witnessed and everywhere recognized, and
the representatives of the people of the United States have sat
in their two houses of legislation as dumb as though they could
not speak, and have not offered a single remedy or a single aid.
As this has gone on until now the Senator from Kentucky rises
in his seat and proposes to make a proclamation of perpetual fu-
ture dependence of this country upon England for such com-
merce as she may enjoy, holding up as models to us Germany,
Italy, and the other European countries that are as absolutely
dependent upon Great Britain for what commerce they enjoy as
the District of Columbia is for its legislation upon the Congress
of the United States.
During these years, in which Congress has not stepped for-
ward to do one thing for the foreign commerce of this country,
for all that vast external transportation whose importance the
Senator from Kentucky has not exaggerated, but has strongly
depicted, the same Congress has passed ninety-two acts in aid of
internal transportation by rail ; it has given 200,000,000 acres
of the public lands, worth to-day a thousand million dollars in
money, and has added $70,000,000 in cash, and yet, I repeat, it
has extended the aid of scarcely a single dollar to build up our
foreign commerce. An energetic and able man who found a
great ocean highway unoccupied, and had the enterprise to put
American vessels of the best construction and great power upon
it, has been held up to scorn and to reproach because he came to
the American Congress and said : " If you will do for this line
what the empire of Brazil will do, I will give you a great line of
steamships from New York to Rio Janeiro." The empire of
Brazil had said lo this enterprising man : " We will pay you a
hundred thousand dollars a year if you will run this line ; " and
New England Senators, I regret to say, who represent the pro-
tective system in this country, said with a quiet complacency :
194 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
'^If Brazil is willing to pay for that, we need not." Brazil has
got tired paying all and the United States paying none. Just as
soon as it was found that we would not pay, a combination of
English ship-builders said : " We will put on our ships and run
that American line off ; we will carry the coffee of Brazil to the
United States for nothing ; we will break down this attempt of
the United States to begin a race upon the ocean ; " and they have
pretty nearly succeeded, while we have looked on with apparent
unconcern, and by our indifference favoring the efforts of the
English line.
Yet during the whole of Great Britain's mastery of the sea,
when she has been seeking every line that could be found on
which a steamer could float, she has never put on lines to carry
from an American port to any foreign ports, but only to her
own. You cannot get a British and South American steamship
line except on the triangular system that will go from New
York to Liverpool taking breadstuffs or cotton, from Liverpool
to Eio Janeiro taking British fabrics, from Rio Janeiro to New
York bringing coffee and dyewoods ; but when the proposition
is made that they shall go back from New York to Eio, they
decline because they do not want to interfere with the prosperity
of England ab home by furnishing transportation to any point
for American fabrics for competition with British fabrics. The
result is that if this Brazilian line shall be taken off, as in all
probability it will if the United States extends no aid, then the
letters of the United States, of the merchants of New York and
Philadelphia and Baltimore and Boston, will be conveyed to Rio
Janeiro via Liverpool and reach that point over two great lines
of British steamships.
The frank admission of the honorable Senator from Kentucky
took away a large part of the argument which I thought I should
have to make, and that was to prove that if the United States
to-day is incompetent to compete with Great Britain in the
manufacture of iron ships, and if you admit iron ships from
Great Britain absolutely free of duty, you will be still more
incompetent to do it next year. It takes, in the language of the
trade, what is called a great " plant " to build steamships ; it
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 195
takes a large investment of money ; it takes large and powerful
machinery ; it requires the investment of millions to start with ;
and if in addition to all that has been done abroad to build up
English ship-yards we pour into them all the patronage that can
come from this country, I should like the honorable Senator
from Kentucky or any other Senator to tell me exactly at what
point of time it will come to pass that any feeble effort on this
side will begin to compete with those great yards. If you
abandon it this year because you are unable, you will be far more
unable next year, you will be still less able the year ensuing, and
every year will add to the monopoly of British power in that
respect and to the absolute weakness and prostration of American
power in competition. But I will say that the frank admission
of the honorable Senator from Kentucky of the future and
perpetual dependence upon England, removes the necessity of
arguing that point. He frankly admits it with all its damaging
force. It is always lawful to be taught by an enemy {fas est ab
lioste doceri). Great Britain has been our great commercial
rival, and since the first Cunard steamship came into Boston,
just about forty years ago, when Great Britain, seeing that steam
was to play so great and commanding a part in the navigation of
the world, first made her venture, from that time down to the
close of 1878, she had paid from her treasury to aid great steam-
ship lines all over the world a sum exceeding forty million
pounds sterling, more than two hundred millions of American
dollars. I know it is a favorite argument with those who occupy
the position of the honorable Senator from Kentucky that Great
Britain started upon this plan and followed it for a long period
of years, and afterwards abandoned it. Sir, she has never aban-
doned it. She has only abandoned its extension to those lines
that were strong enough to go alone, and the British post-ofl&ce
report for the year 1879 shows that under the despised and ridi-
culed head of postal aid, to which the honorable Senator from
Kentucky was pleased to refer with such sneers. Great Britain
paid last year £783,000, well nigh four million dollars in coin.
France gets her steamships from England. France has adopted
the commercial policy which the honorable Senator from
196 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Kentucky thinks would be the revival of the American shipping
interest ; but does France, by the mere fact of getting her ships
built at Birkenhead or on the Clyde, abandon the plan, which
has been for thirty years in operation under her government, of
aiding her ships ? Why, sir, last year France paid 23,000,000
francs — more than four and a half million dollars — to aid her
steamship lines. And when the celebrated line of France, the
company known as Messageries Imperiales, competed too sharply
in the Mediterranean waters after the opening of the Suez Canal,
when that great French company competed with the Peninsular
and Oriental Company of England and was likely to endanger
its supremacy by a sharp rivalry. Great Britain promptly stepped
forward and added £100,000 to the Peninsular and Oriental
subsidy. That is the way Great Britain has abandoned the idea
of aiding her great commercial interests !
Italy, that is hemmed in upon a lake, with a territory that
does not touch either of the great oceans, is running up largely
in steam-navigation. Italy last year paid 8,000,000 francs ; and
even Austria, that enjoys but a single seaport on the upper end
of the Adriatic, pays 1500,000 towards stimulatiog commercial
ventures from Trieste. Now the United States cannot succeed
in this great international struggle without adopting exactly the
same mode that has achieved victory for France. What is it ?
It is not to help A B or C D or E F or anybody else by name,
neither Mr. John Eoach, nor Mr. John Doe, nor Mr. Kichard
Eoe, but to make a great and comprehensive policy that shall
give to every company a pledge of aid from the Government of
so much per mile for such a term of years. Let the American
merchant feel that the Government of the United States is behind
them. Let the United States take from her treasury per annum
the $4,000,000 that Great Britain is paying as a postscript to her
$200,000,000 of investment; let the United States but take $4,-
000,000 per annum, — and that is not a great sum for this opulent
country, — let that be used as a fund to stimulate any company
from any port of the United States to any foreign port, and,
without being a prophet or the son of one, I venture to predict
that you will see that long-deferred, much-desired event, the re-
yival of the American: merchant marine,
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 197
Let us do one thing more where England has pointed the way
for us. We have nine navy-yards without a navy. If we will
put the expense of those navy-yards into the building up of great
private ship-yards, it will form subsidy enough, if that hated word
shall not offend the delicate ears of my friend from Kentucky ;
it will afford aid enough, if that be more to his taste ; it will give
help enough, in conjunction with the saving on the construction
of naval vessels, to float an entire scheme for the revival of
American navigation.
We not only withhold our hands from any possible aid to the
American merchant marine, but we keep up the shadow of a
shell of a navy on the most expensive basis that ever a navy was
attempted to be organized in the world. Great Britain, I believe,
never had but three navy-yards. We support nine. Great
Britain's navy is really fifteen times as large as ours is nomi-
nally.
Mr. President, we have the largest ocean frontage of any country
on the globe. We front all continents ; we border the two great
seas and the greatest of gulfs. We are necessarily, by our posi-
tion, in need of a navy.
The honorable Senator from Kentucky has apparently given
this subject wide and deep attention, and I should be glad in
some subsequent efibrt of his to be informed, after he has brought
this country to a state of absolute dependence for our mercantile
marine upon Great Britain, how he proposes to uphold our
navy, how he proposes to build the vessels, where he is going to
get his ship carpenters ? I do not speak of the sailors ; you can
get them from outside. How is he going to retain among this
people and in this people the very rudimentary art of ship-build-
ing for large ocean-going steamers when his policy absolutely
forbids the remotest prospects of any vessels being built here ?
I do not expect this Congress to do anything ; I am not talk-
ing with the slightest hope that that will come about. I know
it will come some time. I know the scheme of the honorable
Senator from Kentucky, even if Congress should adopt it, would
disappoint everybody. It would disappoint everybody except the
English ship-builder; it would not disappoint him. Yet I ven-
198 BIOGRAPHY OP HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
ture to say it would not be followed at all, as the honorable Sena-
tor says, by Americans largely investing in British ships ; and
the reason why I say that is because they can do it to-day with-
out the aid of new law, and yet they do not. The Williams and
Guion line, half American, half British, opens just as good an
investment, if you are looking at it merely from the money side,
as though they had an American registry. The honorable
Senator from Kentucky himself has told us that the Philadel-
phia line is now running one half British-built vessels. Why
not all ? He says that money is not sentimental. I agree to it ;
and if the object of going into navigation is altogether apart
from any consideration of national flag or national defense, if
that be the sole end and aim, then I remind the honorable Sena-
tor from Kentucky that any man who has a thousand or a
million dollars to invest can freely invest it in a British bottom,
and he would escape much taxation that he would find if he
registered in New York or in Boston ; and he could in many
ways perhaps expedite the gathering of profit unto himself by
keeping a British register rather than by accepting one from
America.
It opens no possible temptation to a man desiring to invest in
navigation to say to him : " You may go abroad, to England,
and buy a vessel and bring her to New York, and we will allow
you to register there at the Custom-house, and you may float the
American flag." " No, I thank you," the shrewd investor re-
plies. "If I do that I am going to have more taxation than I
shall have in Liverpool or Bristol. I prefer to keep the registry
over there," — ^just as the Williams and Guion line does. There
are gentlemen in New York deriving dividends from that line
just as there are gentlemen in Philadelphia deriving dividends
from the hne there that is partly made up of British vessels.
The very moment you disconnect the entire idea of a national
marine and the building of it here, the very moment you put it
down on the simple basis of dollars and cents, regardless of any-
thing American in it, then there is no temptation whatever, and
you offer no extra inducement by saying that the vessel may be
registered here, not the slightest in the world, and it would not
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 199
be done. When the Senator from Kentucky holds up the brilliant
prospect that the repair-shops might be the germ and the seed of
a future marine, he, in effect, if not by intention, abandons all
idea of building ships on this side of the water. And I make
bold to tell him that in five years there would be such an utter
abandonment, not only of investment from this side, but of
building from this side, that the American marine would have
ceased to be; "the house of Braganza would have ceased to
govern," as Napoleon said when he marched into Portugal.
This subject, Mr. President, never can be considered intelli-
gently; it never can be decided, as ultimately, it must be, without
taking into account at the same time the naval establishment of
the United States and the mercantile marine of the United
States. The naval establishment must be the outgrowth of the
mercantile marine, just as it always has been, just as it always will
be, and where you have no mercantile marine out of which to
grow it, you never will have, and no nation ever has had, a
naval establishment worthy of the name. As recently as the
beginning of the late war the maritime States of this Union were
able to offer in that great struggle seven thousand competent
officers of the various grades of the volunteer navy, and put on
the decks of the blockading-fleet seventy thousand American
sailors. Now the Senator from Kentucky, and I think justly,
said that a great deal had been made, or attempted to be made, out
of a few vessels having been taken by blockade-runners and
destroyed, and others frightened into registry abroad, and that
many were dating the downfall of the American mercantile
marine from that cause, which was one cause, but I quite agree
with him that it was not the largest cause, and that it was by no
means the principal cause. I quite agree with him that it was
coincident merely. But another thing happened just about that
time of which the commercial world at least has taken great heed.
Up to that date steam- vessels had not been good or great freighters.
The side-wheel steamer that did business between this country
and Europe was not a great carrying- vessel ; she required too
much coal; her engine took up too much space; but right in
the midst of our war, by a succession of inventions — partly
200 BIOGRAPHY OF HOH. JAMES G. BLAINE.
American and partly British — there was a complete revolution
effected in ocean-going steamers, and the revolution can best be
described by stating this formula, namely : that prior to that
date a vessel of 3,000 tons on a voyage of given length had to
make 2,200 tons allowance for coal and machinery, and only 800
tons for freight, while now it is precisely reversed, and they can
take 800 tons only for coal and machinery and 2,200 tons for
freight. That is the revolution which Great Britain effected,
with the numerous advantages coincident with, and therefore
oftentimes confused with, that other cause which prostrated us
by reason of the war. But the Senator from Kentucky is correct
in stating that the destruction of the vessels, large as it was at
the time and grievous as the calamity was to individuals and to
the country, was not the great principal cause which brought
about the revolution from sailing-vessels to the steam marine.
The carrying capacity of an ocean-going steamer is something
very surprising to men who have not examined it. The very
first steamer of the Eoach line, so-called — and they are by no
means as large steamers as those of the Cunard and White Star
lines between Liverpool and New York — on the very iirst steamer
that went out from New York to Rio, besides an assorted cargo,
which in a manifest would seem to be more than could be got
into the hold of a vessel, there were rolled into that hold twenty
thousand barrels of flour. It seems almost incredible, when you
think what that would take in the way of railroad freight-trains.
That would be two hundred car-loads, at one hundred barrels to
the car, and that was run directly into the hold of that vessel.
That is where these vessels have gained so enormously in the car-
rying trade. It is merely by their huge, prodigious capacity for
freight.
It is idle to fight against the inventions of the world ; it is idle
for us to fold our arms and suppose that wooden vessels are to
maintain anything like the importance they have hitherto had in
the commerce of the world. I think I understand something of
that subject. I have the honor to be from the State that has
built more wooden vessels than all the rest of this Union besides,
I believe. Within thirty miles of my own residence is a town of
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 201
only ten thousand people, which is the largest wooden ship-
building place on the globe to-day. I know some little of that
subject; and while the days of wooden ships are by no means
over, while tliey will be a great and needful auxiliary in the com-
merce of the world, yet it is manifest and is proved that the
great highways of international commerce, such as the North
Atlantic, the West India seas, the route from San Francisco to
Asia, that from San Francisco to Melbourne, and in various and
sundry and divers other directions, will be occupied, and occu-
pied almost to the exclusion of sailing-vessels, by the ocean
steamers. The United States can take a great part in that race ;
they can take a great part in it just whenever they make up their
mind that the instrumentality by which England conquered is
the one which we must use ; they can take it whenever they
make up their minds that a mercantile marine and a naval estab-
lishment must grow and go together hand in hand, and that the
Congress of the United States is derelict in its duty if it passes
another naval appropriation bill without accompanying it in
some form with some wise and forecasting provision looking also
to the upbuilding of the American merchant marine.
When the honorable Senator from Kentucky desires the steam-
ships that are to do the traffic of this country to be built abroad,
he forgets to tell in the interest of the laboring man what is a
well-known, widely-recognized fact, that if you build a ship
worth $500,000, there is only $5,000 of raw material in it, and
that $495,000 is labor. So that the Senator from Kentucky
proposes legislation that will take this enormous employment of
labor to the other side of the ocean, and expend it in foreign
countries. He forgets also that every steamship floating from
the country that builds her, in whose ship-yards she is repaired,
employs as large a number of men on shore as she does at sea.
All this labor the honorable Senator proposes to- employ on the
other side of the ocean. As a plan for adding to the commercial
importance and the absolute monopoly of the British marine,
the honorable Senator from Kentucky may be trusted to have
202 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
suggested the most wise and certain cause by which that eyent
could be brought about.
The honorable Senator, in the early part of his remarks, said
that out in Kentucky, where they raise and run horses, a man
Would be considered an idiot to put one hundred and fifty pounds
on the back of a racehorse against one that was running with
only one hundred and ten. Oh, the Senator from Kentucky
does not propose to do that at all. He simply proposes to with-
draw the American horse from the race.
On the 22d of April, Mr. Blaine offered some resolutions, to
the effect that any radical change in our present tariff laws
would be inopportune, and that it should be the fixed policy
of this Government to so maintain our tariff for revenue as to
afford adequate protection to American labor. On the first of
May he called up the resolutions and urged their passage.
He objected to the appointment of a Tariff Commission, on
the ground that " nothing would more effectually unsettle the
business of the country than that. That was only having the
agitation of the subject, which was disturbing the country by
its appearance in Congress, transferred to a commission." In
the debate which followed, he entered into a general defense
of the policy of protection, and in reply to Mr. Beck, of Ken-
tucky, showed by facts that the boasted tariff of Robert
Walker was a beacon of warning to every man who remembered
its effect throughout the length and breadth of the manufac-
turing industries of this country.
In 1878, the result of the elections in many of the Southern
States was attributed to violence exercised by the Democrats
at the polls. On December 2, Mr. Blaine introduced resolu-
tions instructing the Judiciary Committee to inquire if the
Constitutional rights of American citizens had been violated
in any of the States, and on the 11th he addressed the Senate,
denouncing the "frauds and outrages by which some recent
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 203
elections had been carried/' The question, he argued, was not
one of sentiment about the negro, but whether the white voter
of the North shall be equal to the white voter of the South.
The white voter of the South had exactly twice the power of
the white voter of the North, and this power he had acquired
in violation of law and justice. Then quoting the Fourteenth
Amendment, he showed that in the South
The construction given to this provision is, that before any
forfeiture of representation can be enforced the denial or abridg-
ment of suffrage must be the result of a law specifically enacted
by the State. Under this construction every negro voter may
have his suffrage absolutely denied or fatajly abridged by the
violence, actual or threatened,' of irresponsible mobs, or by
frauds and deceptions of State officers, from the Grovernor down
to the last election clerk, and then, unless some State law can
be shown that authorizes the denial or abridgment, the State
escapes all penalty or peril of reduced representation. This con-
struction may be upheld by the courts, ruling on the letter of
the law, '* which killeth," but the spirit of justice cries aloud
against the evasive and atrocious conclusion that deals out op-
pression to the innocent and shields the guilty from the legiti-
mate consequences of willful transgression.
The colored citizen is thus most unhappily situated ; his right
of suffrage is but a hollow mockery ; it holds to his ear the word
of promise, but breaks it always to his hope, and he ends only in
being made the unwilling instrument of increasing the political
strength of that party from which he received ever-tightening
fetters when he was a slave and contemptuous refusal of civil
rights since he was made free.
Nor should the South make the fatal mistake of concluding
that injustice to the negro is not also injustice to the white
man ; nor should it ever be forgotten that for the wrongs of both
a remedy will assuredly be found. The war, with all its costly
sacrifices, was fought in vain unless equal rights for all classes be
established in all the States of the Union ; and now, in words
which are those of friendship, however differently they may be
204 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
accepted, I tell the men of the South here on this floor and be-
yond this chamber, that even if they could strip the negro of his
constitutional rights they can never permanently maintain the
inequality of white men in this nation ; they can never make a
white man's vote in the South double as powerful in the adminis-
tration of the Government as a white man's vote in the North.
A highly interesting and vitally important issue in parlia-
mentary proceedings was raised in the session of 1879. The
Democratic majority refused to pass appropriation bills
without political "riders" attached to them, and thus
made an extra session necessary. President Hayes is-
sued the call within three weeks after the adjournment of
Congress. Mr. Blaine, in the Senate, and Mr. Garfield, in the
House, led the Kepublican attack. A "rider" attached to
the Army Appropriation Bill provided for the repeal of that
portion of one of the Kevised Statutes which gave to the Gov-
ernment authority to use United States troops to " keep peace
at the polls." Mr. Blaine, in a powerful speech, urged that
"the cat under the meal" in this attempt was a desire "to
get rid of the civil power of the United States in the election
of representatives to the Congress of the United States ; " and
then coming to the main point at issue, he said :
We are told, too, rather a novel thing, that if we do not take
these laws we are not to have the appropriations. I believe it
has been announced in both branches of Congress — I suppose on
the authority of the Democratic caucus — that if we do not take
these bills as they are planned we shall not have any of the ap-
propriations that go with them.
Some gentleman may rise and say : " Do you call it a revolu-
tion to put an amendment on an appropriation bill ? " Of course
not. There have been a great many amendments put on appro-
priation bills, some mischievous and some harmless ; but I call
it the audacity of revolution for any Senator or Kepresentative,
or any caucus of Senators or Representatives, to get together and
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 205
say: "We will have this legislation or we will stop the great
departments of the Government." That is revolutionary. I do
not think it will amount to revolution ; my opinion is it will
not. I think that is a revolution that will not go around; I
think that is a revolution which will not revolve ; I think that
is a revolution whose wheel will not turn*; but it is a revolution
if persisted in, and if not persisted in it must be backed out
from with ignominy. The Democratic party in Congress have
put themselves exactly in this position to-day, that if they go
forward in the announced programme they march to revolution.
I think they will in the end go back in an ignominious retreat.
That is my judgment.
A bill having been introduced restricting the number of
Chinese passengers on incoming vessels to fifteen, and other-
wise restricting Chinese immigration, Mr. Blaine heartily sup-
ported the measure in a speech delivered in the Senate, Feb-
ruary 14, 1879. We reproduce the main features of his argu-
ments in this speech and in his letter to Wm. Lloyd Grarrison :
As I said, the Chinese question is not new. We have had it
here very often, and proceeding somewhat to the second branch,
I lay down this principle, that, so far as my vote is concerned, I
will not admit a man to immigration to this country that 1 am
not Avilling to place on the basis of a citizen. Let me repeat
that. We ought not to admit to this country of universal suf-
frage the immigration of a great people, great in numbers, whom
we ourselves declare are utterly unfit to become citizens.
What do you say on that point ? In the Senate of the United
States, on the fourth of July, 1870, a patriotic day, we were amend-
ing the naturalization laws. We had made all the negroes of the
United States voters practically ; at least we had said they should
not be deprived of suffrage by reason of race or color. We had
admitted them all, and we then amended the naturalization laws
so that the gentleman from Africa himself could become a citizen
of the United States; and an immigrant from Africa to-mor-
row, from the coast of Guinea or Senegambia, can be naturalized
206 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
and made an American citizen. The Senator Trumbull moved
to add : " Or persons born in the Chinese empire."
He said : " I have offered this amendment so as to bring the
distinct question before the Senate, whether they will vote to
naturalize persons from Africa, and vote to refuse to naturalize
those who come froni China. I ask for the yeas and nays on my
amendment."
The yeas and nays were as follows on the question of whether
we would ever admit a Chinaman to become an American citizen.
The yeas were: Messrs. Fenton, Fowler, McDonald, Pomeroy,
Kice, Robertson, Sprague, Sumner, and Trumbull — 9.
The. nays were: Messrs. Bayard, Boreman, Chandler, Conk-
ling, Corbett, Cragin, Drake, Gilbert, Hamilton of Maryland,
Hamlin, Harlan, Howe, McCreery, Morrill of Vermont, Morton,
Nye, Osborn, Eamsey, Saulsbury, Sawyer, Scott, Stewart, Stock-
ton, Thayer, Thurnian, Tipton, Vickers, Warner, Wiley, Wil-
liams, and Wilson — 31.
My friend from Rhode Island [Mr. Anthony] and the honor-
able Chairman of the Judiciary Committee [Mr. Edmunds] are
put among the absent, but there was a vote of 31 against 9 in a
Senate three-fourths Republican, declaring that the Chinaman
never ought to be made a citizen. I think that settles the
whole question, if that was a correct vote, because you cannot
in our system of government as it is to-day, with safety to all,
permit a large immigration of people who are not to be made citi-
zens and take part in the government. The Senator from Cali-
fornia tells us that already the male adult Chinese in California
are more numerous than the white voters. I take him as an
authority from his own State, and I should expect him to take
my statement about my own State.
It seems to me that if we adopt as a permanent policy the free
immigration of those who, by overwhelming votes in both
branches of Congress, we say shall forever remain political and
social pariahs in a great free government, we have introduced an
element that we cannot handle. You cannot stop where we are ;
you are compelled to do one of two things — either exclude the
immigration of Chinese or include them in the great family
of citizens.
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 207
Well, what about the question of numbers ? Did it ever occur
to my honorable friend from Ohio that the vast myriads of
millions almost, as you might call them, the incalculable hordes
in China, are much nearer to the Pacific coast of the United
States, in point of money and passage, in point of expense of
reaching it, than the people of Kansas ? A man in Shanghai
or Hong-Kong can be delivered at San Francisco more cheaply
than a man in Omaha now. I do not speak of the Atlantic
coast, where the population is still more dense ; but you may
take the Mississippi Valley, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas,
Missouri, all the great Commonwealths of that valley, and they
are, in point of expense, further off from the Pacific slope than
the vast hordes in China and Japan.
I am told by those who are familiar with the commercial affairs
of the Pacific side that a person can be sent from any of the great
Chinese ports to San Francisco for something over 130. I sup-
pose in an emigrant train over the Pacific Kailroad from Omaha,
not to speak of the expense of reaching Omaha, but from that
point alone, it would cost 150 per head, and that would be cheap
railroad fare as things go in this country. So that in point of
practicability — in point of getting there — the Chinaman to-day
has an advantage over an American laborer in any part of the
country, except in the case of those who are already on the
Pacific coast.
Ought we to exclude them ? The question lies in my mind
thus : either the Anglo-Saxon race will possess the Pacific slope
or the Mongolians will possess it. You give them the start
to-day with the keen thrust of necessity behind them, and with
the ease of transportation before them, with the inducements to
come, while we are filling up the other portions of the continent,
and it is entirely inevitable, if not demonstrable, that they will
occupy that great space of country between the Sierras and the
Pacific coast. They are themselves to-day establishing steamship
lines ; they are themselves to-day providing the means of trans-
portation ; and when gentlemen say that we admit from all other
countries, where do you find the slightest parallel ? And in a
Republic especially, in any government that maintains itself, the
208 BIOGKAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
unit of order and of administration is in the family. The immi-
grants that come to us from all portions of the British Isles,
from Germany, from Norway, from Denmark, from France, from
Spain, from Italy, come here with the idea of the family as much
engraven on their minds and in their customs and in their habits
as we have it. The Asiatic cannot go on with our population
and make a homogeneous element. The idea of comparing
European immigration with an immigration that has no regard
to family, that does not recognize the relation of husband and
wife, that does not observe the tie of parent and child, that does
not have in the slightest degree the ennobling and the civilizing
influences of the hearthstone and the fireside Why, when gentle-
men talk loosely about emigration from European states as con-
trasted with that, they certainly are forgetting history and
forgetting themselves.
There has not been from the outset any immigration of Chinese
in the sense in which immigration comes to us from Europe. It
has all been ''under contract" and through agencies, and if not
in every respect of the Coolie type, the entire immigration from
China has had the worst and most demoralizing features of Coolie-
ism. The Burlingame treaty specially " reprobated any other
than an entirely voluntary immigration," and yet from the first
Chinaman that came, in 1848, to the last one that landed in San
Erancisco, it is safe to say that not one in one hundred came in
an "entirely voluntary" manner. Up to October, 1876, the rec-
ords of the San Francisco Custom-House show that 233,136
Chinese had arrived in this country, and that 93,273 had returned
to China. The immigration since has been quite large, and
allowing for returns and deaths, the best statistics I can procure
show that about 100,000 Chinese are in California and from
20,000 to 25,000 in the adjacent Pacific States and Territories.
Of this large population fully nine-tenths are adult males.
The women have not in all numbered over seven thousand, and,
according to all accounts, they are impure and lewd far beyond
the Anglo-Saxon conception of impurity and lewdness. One of
the best-informed Californians I ever met says that not one score
of decent and pure women could ever have been found in the
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 209
«.
whole Chinese immigration. It is only in the imagined, rather I
hope the nnimagined, feculence and foulness of Sodom and
Gomorrah that any parallel can be found to the atrocious nasti-
ness of the Chinese quarter of San Francisco. I speak of this
from abounding testimony — largely from those who have had
personal opportunity to study the subject in its revolting details.
In the entire Chinese population of the Pacific coast scarcely one
family is to be found ; no hearthstone of comfort, no fireside of
joy; no father nor mother, nor brother nor sister; no child
reaied by parents ; no domestic and ennobling influences ; no
ties of affection. The relation of wife is degraded beyond all
description, the females holding and dishonoring that sacred
name being sold and transferred from one man to another, with-
out shame and without fear; one woman being at the same time
the wife to several men. Many of these women came to San
Francisco under written contracts for prostitution, openly and
shamelessly entered into. I have myself read the translation of
some of these abominable documents. If as a nation we have
the right to keep out infectious diseases, if we have the right to
exclude the criminal classes from coming to us, we surely possess
the right to exclude that immigration which reeks with impurity,
and which cannot come to us without plenteously sowing the
seeds of moral and physical disease, destitution, and death.
The Chinese immigration to California began with the Amer-
ican immigration in 1848. The two races have been side by side
for more than thirty years, nearly an entire generation, and not
one step toward assimilation has been taken. The Chinese
occupy their own peculiar quarter in the city, adhere to their own
dress, speak their own language, worship in their own heathen
temples, and, inside the municipal law and independent of it,
administer a code among themselves, even pronouncing the death
penalty, and executing it in criminal secrecy. If this were for a
year only, or for two, or five, or even ten years, it might be
claimed that more time was needed for domestication and assimi-
lation ; but this has been going on for an entire generation, and
the Chinaman to-day approaches no nearer to our civilization
than he did when the Golden Gate first received him. In sworn
210 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
testimony before an investigating committee of Congress, Dr.
Mears, the health oflScer of San Francisco, described as " a care-
ful and learned man," testified that the condition of the Chinese
quarter is " horrible, inconceivably horrible !"
He stated that the Chinese as a rule " live in large tenement-
houses, large numbers crowded into individual rooms, without
proper ventilation, with bad drainage, and underground, with a
great deal of filth, the odors from which are horrible." He de-
scribed their "mode of taking a room ten feet high and putting
a flooring half-way to the ceiling, both floors being crowded at
night with sleepers. In these crowded dens cases of small-pox
were concealed from the police." "They live underground in
bunks. The topography of that portion of Chinadom is such
that you enter a house sometimes and think that it is a one-story
house, and you will find two or three stories down below on the
side of the hill, where they live in great filth." Another close
and accurate observer, a resident of California, sa}- s : " The only
wonder is that desolating pestilences have not ensued. Small-
pox has often been epidemic, and could always be traced to
Chinese origin. The Chinese quarter was once occupied by
shops, churches, and dwellings of Americans. Now these are as
thoroughly Mongolian as any part of Canton. All other races
flee from the contact." Dr. Mears further testified and gave
many revolting details in proof that the Chinese " are cruel and
indifferent to their sick." He described cases of Chinese lepers
at the city hospital : " Their feet dropped off by dry gangrene
and their hands were wasted and attenuated. Their finger-nails
dropped off." He said the Chinese were gradually working east-
ward, and would by-and-by crowd into Eastern cities, where the
conditions under which they live in San Francisco would produce,
in the absence of its climatic advantages, destructive pestilence."
Perhaps a Chinese quarter in Boston, with forty thousand Mon-
golians located somewhere between the south end and the north
end of the city and separating the two would give Mr. Garrison
some new views as to the power and right of a nation to exclude
moral and physical pestilence from its borders. In San Fran-
cisco there is no hot weather, the thermometer rarely rising
BLAINE IN THE SENATE, - 211
above 65°. One of the most intelligent physicians in the United
States says that the Chinese quarter of San Francisco transferred
to Saint Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, or any Eastern city, would
in a hot summer breed a plague equal to the " black death " that
is now alarming the civilized world. When Mr. Garrison says that
the immigration of Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, Frenchmen,
Germans, and Scandinavians, must be put on the same footing as
the Chinese Coolies, he confounds all distinctions, and, of course
without intending it, libels almost the entire white population
whose blood is inherited from the races he names. All the immi-
gration from Europe to-day assimilates at once with its own blood
on this soil, and to place the Chinese Coolies on the same footing
is to shut one's eyes to all the instincts of human nature and all
the teachings of history.
Is it not inevitable that a class of men living in this degraded
and filthy condition, and on the poorest of food, can work for
less than the American laborer is entitled to receive for his daily
toil. Put the two classes of labor side by side, and the cheap
servile labor pulls down the more manly toil to its level. The
free white laborer never could compete with slave labor of the
South. In the Chinaman the white laborer finds only another
form of servile competition — in some aspects more revolting and
corrupting than African slavery. Whoever contends for the un-
restricted immigration of Chinese Coolies contends for that sys-
tem of toil which blights the prospects of the white laborer —
dooming him to starvation wages, killing his ambition by ren-
dering his struggle hopeless, and ending in a plodding and piti-
less poverty. Nor is it a truthful answer to say that this danger
is remote. Eemote it may be for Mr. Garrison, for Boston, and
for New England, but it is instant and pressing on the Pacific
slope. Already the Chinese male adults on that coast are well-
nigh as numerous as the white voters of California, and it is con-
ceded that a Chinese emigrant can be placed in San Francisco
for one-half the amount required to transport a man from the
Mississippi valley to the Pacific coast, and for one-third what it
requires for a New Yorker or a New Englander to reach Cali-
fornia or Oregon. The late Caleb Cushing, who had carefully
212 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
studied the Chinese question, ever since his mission to Pekin in
1842, maintained that, unless resisted by the United States, the
first general famine in China would be followed by an emigration
to California that would swamp the white race. I observe that
a New England newspaper — I specially regret that such ignorance
should be shown in New England — says it is only " a strip " on
the Pacific that the Chinaman seeks for a home. The Chinese
are already scattered in three States and two adjacent Territories,
whose area is larger than the original Thirteen Colonies. Califor-
nia alone is larger than New England, New York, Pennsylvania,
and Ohio, and is capable of maintaining a vast population of Anglo-
Saxon freemen, if we do not surrender it to Chinese Coolies.
Before the same committee of investigation from whose report
I have already quoted, Mr. T. W. Jackson, a man of high char-
acter, who had traveled extensively in the East, testified that his
strong belief was " that if the Chinese felt that they were safe
and had a firm footing in California, they would come in enor-
mous numbers, because the population of China is practically
inexhaustible." Such, indeed, is the unbroken testimony of all
who are entitled to express an opinion. The decision of Con-
gress on this matter, therefore, becomes of the very last impor-
tance. Had it been in favor of Chinese immigration, with the
encouragement and protection which that would have implied, it
requires no vivid imagination to foresee that the great slope be-
tween the Sierras and the Pacific would become the emigrating
ground for the Chinese empire. So that I do not at all exagger-
ate when I say that on the adoption or rejection of the policy
passed upon by Congress hangs the fate of the Pacific slope —
whether its labor shall be that of American freemen or servile
Mongolians. If Mr. Garrison thinks the interests of his own
countrymen, his own government, and, in a still larger sense,
the interests of humanity and civilization, will be promoted by
giving np the Pacific to Mongolian labor, I beg respectfully but
firmly to differ from him. There is no ground on which we are
bound to receive them to our own detriment. Charity is the first
of Christian graces. But Mr. Garrison would not feel obliged to
receive into his family a person that would physically contami-
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 213
nate or morally corrupt his children. As with a family, so with
a nation : the same instinct of self-preservation exists, the same
right to prefer the interest of our own people, the same duty to
exclude that which is corrupting and dangerous to the Eepublic !
The outcry that we are violating our treaty obhgations is with-
out any foundation. The article on emigration in the treaty has
not been observed by China for a single hour since it was made.
All the testimony taken on the subject — and it has been full and
copious — shows conclusively that the entire emigration was
" under contract ^' ; that the Coolies had been gathered together
for export, and gathered as agents in our Western States would
gather hve-stock for shipment. A very competent witness in
California, speaking to this point, says :
" On the arrival of the Chinese in California they are consigned
like hogs to the different Chinese companies, their contracts are
vised, and the Coolie commences to pay to the companies fees to
insure care if he is taken sick and his return home dead or alive.
His return is prevented until after his contract has been entirely
fulfilled. If he breaks his contract the spies of the six companies
hunt him to prevent his returning to China, by arrangement with
the steamship company or their agents in the steamship employ
to prevent his getting a ticket. The agents of the steamship
companies testified to this same fact. If a ticket is obtained for
him by others he is forcibly stopped on the day of sailing by em-
ployees of the six companies, called ' high -binders,' who can al-
ways be seen guarding the Coolies."
Mr. Joseph J. Eay, a Philadelphia merchant, long resident in
China, and a close observer of its emigration, says " that -^^ of
the Chinese who have reached our shores were not free agents in
their coming. Files of the Hong-Kong newspapers from 1861
would supply information regarding the *barracoons' at that
port, and when the system had become too great a scandal, their
removal to Macao (a Portuguese colony, forty miles distant), in
which 'barracoons' the Chinese, in every sense prisoners, were
retained until their shipment to San Francisco, Callao, Havana, etc.
These, called by courtesy emigrants, were collected from within
a radius of two or three hundred miles from Canton, and con-
214 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
sisted of the abjectly poor, who, willing or not, were sold to ob-
tain food for their families, or for gambling debts (the Chinese,
as you are aware, being inveterate gamblers), or the scapegraces
of the country, fleeing to avoid punishment."
It is, of course, a mere misuse of terms to call this an " entirely
voluntary emigration," and yet none other was permissible under
the Burlingame treaty. Our Government would be clearly
justified in disregarding the treaty on the single ground that the
Chinese Government had never respected its provisions. But
without any reference to that, our Government possesses the
right to abrogate the treaty if it judges that its continuance is
''pernicious to the State." Indeed, the two pending proposi-
tions in the Senate differed not in regard to our own right to
abrogate the treaty, but simply as to whether we should do it in
July, 1879, by the exercise of our power without further notice
to China, or whether we should do it in January, 1880, after
notifying China that we had made up our minds to do it. Kearly
a year ago Congress by joint resolution expressed its discontent
with the existing treaty, and thus clearly gave notice to the
civilized world — if notice were needful — of the desire and inten-
tion of our people. In the late action of Congress the opposing
proposition — moved as a substitute for the bill to which I gave
my support — requested the President to notify the Emperor of
China that Chinese immigration is " unsatisfactory and perni-
cious," and in effect if he would not modify the treaty as we
desired, then the President should notify the emperor that after
January 1, 1880, the United States will "treat the obnoxious
stipulations as at an end." Both propositions — the bill that
we passed and the substitute that we rejected — assumed alike
the full right to abrogate the treaty. Whether it were bet-
ter to abrogate it after last year's joint resolution, or to in-
form the Emperor of China directly that if he would not con-
sent to the change "we would make it anyhow," must be
relegated for decision to the schools of taste and etiquette.
The first proposition resting on our clear constitutional power
seemed to me a better mode of proceeding than to ask the Em-
peror of China to consent to a modification, and informing him
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 215
at the same time that, whether he consented or not, we would
on next New Year's day treat " the obnoxious stipulations as at
an end." As to the power of Congress to do just what has been
done, no one will entertain a doubt who examines the whole
question. An admirable summary of the right and power is
found in an opinion delivered by that eminent jurist, Benjamin
K. Curtis, when he was a judge of the United States Supreme
Court. Judge Curtis said :
" It cannot be admitted that the only method of escape from
a treaty is by the consent of the other party to it or a declaration
of war. To refuse to execute a treaty for reasons which approve
themselves to the conscientious judgment of a nation is a matter
of the utmost gravity ; hut tlie power to do so is a prerogative of
wliich no nation can he deprived without deeply affecting its inde-
pendence. That the people of the United States have deprived
their government of this power I do not believe. That it must
reside somewhere, and be applicable to all cases, I am convinced,
and I feel no douM that it belongs to Congress."
A great deal has been said about the danger to our trade if
China should resort to some form of retaliation. The natural
and pertinent retaliation is to restrict American immigration to
China. Against that we will enter no protest, and should have
no right to do so. The talk about China closing her ports to
our trade is made only by those who do not understand the
question. Last year the total amount of our exports to all
Chinese ports outside of Hong-Kong was about $692,000. I
have called Hong-Kong a Chinese port, but every child knows
that it is under British control, and if we were at war with
China to-day Hong-Kong would be as open to us as Liverpool.
To speak of China punishing us by suspending trade is only the
suggestion of dense ignorance. We pay China an immense
balance in coin, and probably we always shall do it. But if the
trade question had the importance which some have erroneously
attributed to it, I would not seek its continuance by permitting
a vicious immigration of Chinese Coolies. The Bristol mer-
chants cried out that commerce would be ruined if England
persisted in destroying the slave trade. But history does not
216 BIOGEAPHY OF HON. JAMES C. BLAINE.
record that England sacrificed her honor by yielding to the
cry.
The enlightened religious sentiment of the Pacific coast views
with profound alarm the tendency and effect of unrestricted
Chinese immigration. The " pastors and delegates of the Con-
gregational churches of California " a year since expressed their
*' conviction " that ''the Burlingame treaty ought to be so
modified by the General Government as to restrict Chinese
immigration." Eev. S. V. Blakeslee, editor of the oldest
rehgious paper on the Pacific coast, spoke thus in an official
address :
"Moreover, wealthy English and American companies have
organized great money-making plans for bringing millions — it is
true — even millions — of these Chinese into our State, and into
all parts of the Union ; and they have sent out emissaries into
China to induce the people, by every true and false story, to
migrate here. Already two hundred and fifty thousand have
come, of whom one hundred thousand remain.
" The tendency of all this is tremendously toward evil ;
toward vice and abomination ; toward all opposed to the true
spirit of Americanism, and is very dangerous to our morality, to
our stability, and to our success as a people and a nation. Mil-
lions more of these Chinese must come if not prevented by any
legal, or moral, or mobocratic restraint, increasing incalculably
by numbers the evils already existing, while a spirit of race
prejudices and clanship jealousies and a conflict of interests
must be developed, portending possible evil beyond all descrip-
tion."
In regard to the process of converting and Christianizing this
people, a missionary who has been in the field since 1849 testifies
that not one in a thousand has even nominally professed a change
from heathenism, and that of this small number nearly one half
had been taught in missionary schools in China. The same mis-
sionary says: "As they come in still larger numbers they will
more effectually support each other in their national peculiarities
and vices, become still more confirmed in heathen immoralities,
with an influence in every respect incalculably bad." Under
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 217
what possible sense of duty any American can feel that he pro-
motes Christianity by the process of handing California over to
heathenism is more than I am able to discover.
I have heard a good deal about their cheap labor. I do not
myself believe in cheap labor. I do not believe cheap labor
should be an object of legislation, and it will not be in a repub-
lic. You cannot have the wealthy classes in a republic where
suffrage is universal legislate for cheap labor. I undertake to
repeat that. I say that you cannot have the wealthy classes in a
republic where suffrage is universal legislate in what is called the
interest of cheap labor. Labor should not be cheap, and it should
not be dear ; it should have its share, and it will have its share.
There is not a laborer on the Pacific coast to-day, I say that to
my honorable colleague — whose whole life has been consistent
and uniform in defense and advocacy of the interests of the
laboring-classes — there is not a laboring-man on the Pacific
coast to-day who does not feel wounded and grieved and crushed
by the competition that comes from this source. Then the
answer is : " Well, are not American laborers equal to Chinese
laborers?" I answer that question by asking another. Were
not free white laborers equal to African slaves in the South ?
When you tell me that the Chinaman driving out the free Amer-
ican laborer only proves the superiority of the Chinaman, I ask
you, Did the African slave labor driving out the free white labor
from the South prove the superiority of slave labor ? The con-
ditions are not unlike ; the parallel is not complete, and yet it is
a parallel. It is servile labor ; it is not free labor such as we in-
tend to develop and encourage and build up in this country. It
is labor that comes here under a mortgage. It is labor that
comes here to subsist on what the American laborer cannot sub-
sist on. You cannot work a man who must have beef and bread,
and would prefer beer, alongside of a man who can live on rice.
It cannot be done. In all such conflicts and in all such struggles
the result is not to bring up the man who lives on rice to the
beef-and-bread standard, but it is to bring down the beef-and-
bread man to the rice standard. Slave labor degraded free labor ;
it took out its respectability ; it put an odious cast upon it. It
218 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
throttled the prosperity of a fine and fair portion of the United
States ; and a worse than slave labor will throttle and impair the
prosperity of a still finer and fairer section of the United States.
We can choose here to-day whether our legislation shall he in
the interest of the American free laborer or for the servile laborer
from China.
I feel and know that I am pleading the cause of the free
American laborer and of his children and of his children's chil-
dren. It has been well said that it is the cause of "the house
against the hovel ; of the comforts of the freeman against the
squalor of the slave." It has been charged that my position
would arraign labor-saving machinery and condemn it. This
answer is not only superficial ; it is also absurd. Labor-saving
machinery has multiplied the power to pay, has developed new
wants, and has continually enlarged the area of labor and con-
stantly advanced the wages of the laborer. But servile toil has
always dragged free labor to its lowest level, and has stripped it
of one muniment after another until it was helpless and hope-
less. Whenever that condition comes to the free laborer of
America, the Republic of equal rights is gone, and we shall live
under the worst of oligarchies — that of mere wealth, whose profit
only measures the wretchedness of the unpaid toilsmen that pro-
duce it.
From National affairs we turn for a moment to look at local
troubles in his own State of Maine. In 1879, a united party
of Democrats and Greenbackers became dominant in the State
of Maine ; the election in the next year resulted in a Eepubli-
can triumph. Governor Garcelon and his Council, however,
disputed the returns and " counted out " a number of Kepub-
lican members of the Legislature on technical errors. In
December, 1879, and January, 1880, the excitement was at
its highest pitch, threats of violence were freely bandied about,
but by prompt, energetic, and prudent action, under the advice
of Mr. Blaine, the peaceful inauguration of the lawfully chosen
officers was secured.
BLAINE IN THE SENATE. 219
Wednesday, June 2, 1880, the Republican National Conven-
tion began its sessions at Chicago. There were three men promi-
nently mentioned for the nomination — General Grant, James
G. Blaine, and John Sherman. Three United States Senators
led the Grant forces — Roscoe Conkling of New York, J. D.
Cameron of Pennsylvania, and John A. Logan of Illinois. In
the preliminary contests over the unit rule, which was finally
abrogated, in spite of earnest opposition by the Grant men, it
became evident to all that the issue must be Grant against the
field, and so it proved. The nominations were made on Sat-
urday night. Mr. Conkling named the hero of many battles
in an eloquent speech ; twenty minutes hardly sufficing to
contain the cheering at its close. James F. Joy, of Michigan,
nominated Mr. Blaine; he was followed by Mr. Frye, of
Maine, in a speech which held the interested attention of the
vast assemblage, and was greeted with merited applause. He
said: "I once saw a storm at sea in the night-time; an old
ship battling for its life with the fury of the tempest ; dark-
ness everywhere ; the winds raging and howling ; the huge
waves beating on the sides of the ship, and making her shiver
from stem to stern. The lightning was flashing, the thunders
rolling ; there was danger everywhere. I saw at the helm a
bold, courageous, immovable, commanding man. In the tem-
pest, calm ; in the commotion, quiet ; in the danger, hopeful.
I saw him take the old ship and bring her into her harbor,
into still waters, into safety. That man was a hero. I saw
the good old ship of State, the State of Maine, within the last
year, fighting her way through the same waves, against the
dangers. She was freighted with all that is precious in the
principles of our Republic ; with the rights of the American
citizenship, with all that is guaranteed to the American citi-
zen by our Constitution. The eyes of the whole nation were
on her, and intense anxiety filled every American heart lest
220 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
the grand old ship, the ' State of Maine/ might go down be-
neath the waves forever, carrying her precious freight with
her. But there was a man at the helm, calm, deliberate, com-
manding, sagacious ; he made even the foolish man wise ;
courageous, he inspired the timid with courage ; hopeful, he
gave heart to the dismayed, and he brought that good old
ship safely into harbor, into safety ; and she floats to-day
greater, purer, stronger for her baptism of danger. That man,
too, was heroic, and his name was James G. Blaine."
The balloting began on Monday, June 7. Eighteen ballots
were taken at the first session. Grant's vote ranging from 303
to 309, Blaine's from 280 to 285. The evening brought little
change ; ten ballots left the relative strength of the candidates
substantially as it had been on the first ballot. On the thirty-
first ballot, taken Tuesday afternoon, Blaine's vote fell from
275 to 257, and Garfield's rose from 17 to 50 ; no wavering in
the Grant column. The 36th ballot gave Garfield 399 votes
and the nomination, Grant 306, Blaine 42. Twice defeated,
but not dead yet. Eighteen eighty-four is coming. Blaine
men had nominated Garfield ; Blaine men worked hard for his
election. Mr. Blaine himself took the stump, and meeting
everywhere with the old enthusiasm, gave himself without
reserve to the service of the man whom he had helped to nomi-
nate. As was expected, when Mr. Garfield made up his Cabi-
net, the first place was assigned to James Gillespie Blaine.
CHAPTER XI.
SECRETARY OF STATE.
Mr. Blaine and Mr. Garfield meet. — Washington Secretaryship tendered and
accepted. — Short term of office. — The Monroe Doctrine revived. — The
Neutrality question. — The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. — Mr. Blaine's argu-
ment for its abrogation. — Two principal objects of his Foreign Policy. —
Intervention in South America. — Instructions to General Hurlbut. —
Special envoys. — Their recall and the survival of the Foreign Policy. —
The Peace Congress. — The Stalwart Half-Breed quarrel. — Assassination
of Garfield. — Mr. Blaine's Memorial Oration. — " Twenty Years of Con-
ON the 26th day of November, 1880, President-elect Gar-
field and Senator Blaine met by appointment in the City
of Washington. They were closeted for two hours without in-
terruption from a single person, and when they parted the
State Department in the new Cabinet had been offered to Mr.
Blaine. " I was hardly prepared for it," he said ; " I do not
know how to make answer. I would like time for reflection •
and consultation."
Later he said to his confidential friends : " If the senti-
ment of the country indorses the selection of General Garfield,
I will accept the office, otherwise not." The report of the
offer found its way into the newspapers, and was favorably re-
ceived by the public. He waited three weeks, and then
accepted in the following letter :
Washington, December 20, 1880.
Mt Dear Garfield : Your generous invitation to enter your
Cabinet as Secretary of State has been under consideration for
more than three weeks. The thought had really never occurred
222 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
to my mind until at our late conference you presented it with
such cogent arguments m its favor, and with such warmth of
personal friendship in aid of your kind offer.
I know that an early answer is desirable, and I have waited
only long enough to consider the subject in all its bearings, and
to make up my mind definitely and conclusively. I now say to
you, in the same cordial spirit in which you have invited me, that
I accept the position.
It is no affectation for me to add that I make this decision,
not for the honor of the promotion it gives me in the public
service, but because I think I can be useful to the country and
to the party ; useful to you as the responsible leader of the party
and the great head of the Government.
I am influenced somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters I
have received urging me to accept, written to me in consequence
of the mere unauthorized newspaper report that you had been
pleased to offer me the place. While I have received these letters
from all sections of the Union, I have been especially pleased and
even surprised at the cordial and widely extended feeling in my
favor throughout New England, where I had expected to en-
counter local jealousy, and perhaps rival aspiration.
In our new relation I shall give all that I am, and all that I
can hope to be, freely and joyfully, to your service. You need
no pledge of my loyalty in heart and in act. I should be false to
myself did I not prove true both to the great trust you confide to
me and to your own personal and political fortunes in the present
and in the future. Your Administration must be made brill-
iantly successful and strong in the confidence and pride of the
people, not at all directing its energies for re-election, and yet
compelling that result by the logic of events, and by the imperi-
ous necessities of the situation.
To that most desirable consummation I feel that, next to your-
self, I can possibly contribute as much influence as any other
one man. I say this not from egotism or vainglory, but merely
as a deduction from a plain analysis of the political forces which
have been at work in the country for five years past, and which
have been significantly shown in two great National Conventions.
SECRETAKY OP STATE. 223
I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances connected with
this affair that in allying my political fortunes with yours — or
rather for the time merging mine in yours — my heart goes with
my head, and that I carry to you not only political support, but
personal and devoted friendship. I can but regard it as some-
what remarkable that two men of the same age, entering Con-
gress at the same time, influenced by the same aims, and cherish-
ing the same ambitions, should never, for a single moment in
eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a misunderstanding
or a coolness, and that our friendship has steadily grown with
our growth and strengthened with our strength.
It is this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in
this letter ; for however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire
you as a statesman, I would not enter your Cabinet if I did not
believe in you as a man and love you as a friend. Always faith-
fully yours,
James G. Blaine.
From March 5, 1881, to December 19, of the same year, a
little more than nine months, Mr. Blaine kept his post. In
any fair estimate of his career, this fact must not be forgotten.
He was in office just long enough to indicate the drift of his
foreign policy without being able to give it a fair trial. Two
months of his brief term were spent at the bedside of a dying
President, and three months under the Administration of Mr.
Arthur, in whose Cabinet he remained only until his successor
could be chosen. The main lines of his policy should be briefly
indicated before we enter upon a particular examination of the
acts to which it led. Compactly stated, it was the Monroe
policy revived and emphasized. President Monroe, in a
message to Congress, in 1823, declared that any attempt on
the part of European powers to " extend their system to any
portion of this hemisphere, would be regarded by the United
States as dangerous to our peace and safety." President Gar-
field, in his inaugural address, referring to the Panama Canal
224 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
project by De Lesseps, aflfirmed the same doctrine, holding that
it was " the right and duty of the United States to assert and
maintain such supervision and authority over any interoceanic
canal across the Isthmus that connects North and South
America as will protect our National interests."
Taken in its simplest form, this traditional American
policy is based upon the plain truth that American soil is for
American institutions. Foreign growths, like the barren fig-
tree, cumber the ground. European trees may strike their
roots and spread their branches toward Asia. We prefer not
to have them growing on om* side of the water.
If we understand the foreign policy of the Garfield Admin-
istration, in one of its controlling principles it was American
management of American affairs. It aimed to be conservative
without sacrifice, firm and vigorous without bravado, wise
with American wisdom. Yery early in the Garfield Admin-
istration it became necessary for the State Department to show
its hand. The Columbian Eepublic had applied to the
European powers to join in guaranteeing the neutrality of the
Panama Canal. Upon hearing that such a proposal had been
made. Secretary Blaine reminded the European governments
that the United States had acquired exclusive rights with the
country through which the canal was to pass. This rendered
the prior guarantee of the United States indispensable, and
the powers were informed that any foreign guarantee would be
regarded as an unfriendly act. One thing, however, seemed
to stand in the way of an American protectorate. The United
States had, in 1850, concluded with Great Britain the Clay-
ton-Bulwer Treaty, by the terms of which this Government
was bound not to fight in the Isthmus, nor to fortify any water-
way that might be constructed through it. Plainly the
United States could not move freely in the Isthmus, nor exert
any control whatever over the oanal, while this Treaty re-
SECRETARY OF STATE. 225
mained in force. Secretary Blaine, therefore, proposed the
abrogation of those portions of it which directly conflicted
with the provisions of the compact with the Columbian Ke-
public.
The treaty — said Mr. Blaine, in an elaborate State paper —
commands this government not to use a single regiment of troops
to protect the interests in connection with the interoceanic canal,
but to surrender the transit to the guardianship and control of
the British navy
The convention was made more than thirty years ago, under
exceptional and extraordinary conditions, which have long since
ceased to exist — conditions which at best were temporary in their
nature, and which can never be reproduced.
The development of the Pacific coast places responsibihty upon
our Government which it cannot meet, and not control the canal
now building, and Just as England controls the Suez Canal.
England requires and sustains an immense navy, for which we
have no use, and might at any time seize the canal, and make it
impossible for us to marshal a squadron in Pacific waters, without
a perilous voyage ourselves around the Horn.
The two principal objects of the foreign policy of the Gar-
field Administration, as stated by Mr. Blaine, were :
First, to bring about peace and prevent future wars in North
and South America; second, to cultivate such friendly com-
mercial relations with all American countries as would lead to a
large increase in the export trade of the United States by sup-
plying those fabrics in which we are abundantly able to compete
with the manufacturing nations of Europe.
The second object could not be attained until the first had
been accomplished. For three years there had been war be-
tween Chili, Peru, and Bolivia. The friendly offices of the
United States had barely averted a conflict between Chili and
the Argentine Eepublic. Mexico had been on the verge of
open hostilities with Guatemala. Brazil had threatened Uru-
226 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
guay. Wars and rumors of wars were the rule among the
Spanish- American Eepublics. Eegarding peace as essential
to commerce and as the only solid basis of international pros-
perity, the new Administration directed its first efforts to se-
cure a cessation of hostilities. The war between Chili and
Peru virtually ended with the capture of Lima, January 17,
1881, but Pierola, the President of the Peruvian Kepublic,
had rallied a few followers in the north, and Calderon, assum-
ing a provisional Presidency, had called a Congress in the vi-
cinity of Lima, so that the struggle was indefinitely prolonged.
To bring about a proper adjustment of the differences be-
tween the three belligerent parties was the difficult task set
before the State Department.
The following letter written by Secretary Blaine to General
S. A. Hurlbut, United States Minister to Peru, indicates the
purpose and the extent of the intervention which the State
Department proposed to make in the furtherance of peace :
The deplorable condition of Peru, the disorganization of its
government, and the absence of precise and trustworthy informa-
tion as to the state of affairs now existing in that unhappy
country, render it impossible to give you instructions as full and
definite as I would desire.
Judging from the most recent dispatches from our ministers, you
will probably find on the part of the Chilian authorities in posses-
sion of Peru awillingness to facilitate the establishment of the pro-
visional government which has been attempted by Senor Calderon.
If so you will do all you properly can to encourage the Peruvians
to accept any reasonable conditions and limitations with which
this concession may be accompanied. It is vitally important to
Peru, that she be allowed to resume the functions of a native
and orderly government, both for the purposes of internal ad-
ministration and the negotiation of peace. To obtain this end
it would be far better to accept conditions which may be hard
and unwelcome, than by demanding too much to force the con-
SECRETARY OF STATE. 227
tinuance of the military control of Chili. It is hoped that you
will be able, in your necessary association -with the Chilian au-
thorities, to impress upon them that the more liberal and con-
siderate their pohcy, the surer it will be to obtain a lasting and
satisfactory settlement. The Peruvians cannot but be aware of
the sympathy and interest of the people and Government of the
United States, and will, I feel confident, be prepared to give to
your representations the consideration to which the friendly
anxiety of this Government entitles them.
The United States cannot refuse to recognize the rights which
the Chilian government has acquired by the successes of the war,
and it may be that a cession of territory will be the necessary
price to be paid for peace.
It is the desire of the United States to act in a spirit of the
sincerest friendship to the three Kepublics, and to use its influence
solely in the interests of an honorable and lasting peace.
These instructions were for some reason misunderstood or
misapplied, so that, instead of furthering the interests of peace,
the American Minister made matters worse. It was therefore
determined to send two envoys, specially commissioned with
full powers and accredited to the belligerent nations, in order
if possible to secure a peaceful settlement of their quarrels.
William Henry Trescott and Walker G. Blaine were ap-
pointed to perform this delicate duty, but before they had
reached Chili Mr. Blaine resigned, and his successor hastily
reversed his policy, and when the envoys arrived they were
chagrined and humiliated to find themselves discredited and
their occupation gone. Mr. Trescott, in a letter written under
date July 17, 1882, said, respecting the famous Cochet and
Landreau claims, that Mr. Blaine absolutely rejected the first,
and instructed General Hurlbut to ask, if the proper time for
such request should come, that Landreau might be heard be-
fore a Peruvian tribunal in support of his claim. This claim,
it will be remembered, was for the value of certain guano beds
228 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
which Landreau professed to have discovered. Mr. Trescott
further said that
General Hurlbut, although approving the justice of Lan-
dreau's claim in his dispatch of September 14, 1881, never
brought it in any way to the notice of the Peruvian Government.
During my mission in South America, I never referred to it, so
that, in point of fact, during your Secretaryship the Landreau
claim was never mentioned by Ministers of the United States,
either to the Chilian or Peruvian Government. It could not,
therefore, have affected the then pending diplomatic questions
in the remotest degree.
In order to secure the advantages of a permanent peace be-
tween the countries of North and South America — to prevent
war, instead of by friendly intervention afterwards ameliorat-
ing its effects, it was resolved to call a Peace Congress. Mr.
Blaine in his dispatch, Nov. 29, 1881, wrote :
For some years past a growing disposition has been manifested
by certain States of Central and South America to refer disputes
affecting grave questions of international relationship and
boundaries to arbitration rather than to tbe sword. It has been
on several such occasions a source of profound satisfaction to
the Government of the United States to see that this country is
in a large measure looked to by all the American powers as their
friend and mediator. The just and impartial counsel of the
President in such cases has never been withheld, and his efforts
have been rewarded by the prevention of sanguinary strife or
angry contention between peoples whom we regard as brethren.
The existence of this growing tendency convinces the Presi-
dent that the time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the
good-will and active co-operation of all the States of the Western
hemisphere, both North and South, in the interest of humanity,
and for the commonweal of nations. He conceives that none of
the Governments of America can be less alive than our own to
the dangers and horrors of a state of war, and especially of war
between kinsmen. He is sure that none of the chiefs of govern-
SECRETARY OF STATE. 229
ments on the continent can be less sensitiye than he is to the
sacred duty of making every endeavor to do away with the
chances of fratricidal strife. And he looks with hopeful confi-
dence to such active assistance from them as will serve to show
the broadness of our common humanity, and the strength of the
ties which bind us all together as a great and harmonious system
of American commonwealths.
Impressed by these views, the President extends to all the in-
dependent countries of North and South America an earnest
invitation to participate in a general Congress to be held in the
City of Washington on the twenty-fourth day of November, 1882,
for the purpose of considering and discussing the methods of
preventing war between the nations of America. He desires
that the attention of the Congress shall be strictly confined
to this one great object ; that its sole aim shall be to seek a way
of permanently averting the horrors of cruel and bloody combat
between countries, oftenest of one blood and speech, or the even
worse calamity of internal commotion and civil strife; that it
shall regard the burdensome and far-reaching consequences of
such struggles, the legacies of exhausted finances, of oppressive
debts, of onerous taxation, of ruined cities, of paralyzed indus-
tries, of devastated fields, of ruthless conscription, of the
slaughter of men, of the grief of the widow and the orphan, of
embittered resentments that long survive those who provoke
them and heavily afi&ict the innocent generations that come
after.
The project was cordially approved in South America, and
some of the countries signified their willingness to attend and
participate in the deliberation of the Congress, but within six
weeks after their issue the invitations were withdrawn. Mr.
Blaine, in a letter published after his retirement from the
Cabinet, thus vindicates the abandoned plan and the general
policy of intervention :
The foreign policy of President Garfield's Administration had
two principal objects in view : First, to bring about peace and
230 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
prevent future wars in North and South America ; second, to
cultivate such friendly, commercial relations with all American
countries as would lead to a large increase in the export trade of
the United States, by supplying those fabrics in which we are
abundantly able to compete with the manufacturing nations of
Europe.
To attain the second object the first must be accomplished.
It would be idle to attempt the development and enlargement of
our trade with the countries of North and South America if that
trade were liable at any unforeseen moment to be violently inter-
rupted by such wars as that which for three years has engrossed
and almost engulfed Chili, Peru, and Bolivia ; as that which was
barely averted by the friendly offices of the United States between
Chili and the Argentine Eepublic ; as that which has been post-
poned by the same good offices, but not decisively abandoned,
between Mexico and Guatemala ; as that which is threatened be-
ween Brazil and Uruguay ; as that which is even now foreshadowed
between Brazil and the Argentine States. Peace is essential to
commerce, is the very life of honest trade, is the solid basis of
international prosperity; and yet there is no part of the world
where a resort to arms is so prompt as in the Spanish- American
Eepublics. Those Republics have grown out of the old colonial
divisions, formed from capricious grants to favorites by royal
charter, and their boundaries are in many cases not clearly de-
fined, and consequently afford the basis of continual disputes,
breaking forth too often in open war. To induce the Spanish
American States to adopt some peaceful mode of adjusting their
frequently recurring contentions was regarded by the late Presi-
dent as one of the most honorable and useful ends to which the
diplomacy of the United States could contribute — useful especially
to those States by securing permanent peace within all their
borders, and useful to our own country by affording a coveted
opportunity for extending its commerce and securing enlarged
fields for our products and manufactures.
Instead of friendly intervention here and there, patching up a
treaty between two countries to-day, securing a truce between
two others to-morrow, it was apparent to the President that a
SECRETARY OF STATE. 231
more comprehensive plan should be adopted if war was to cease
in the Western hemisphere. It was evident that certain European
powers had in the past been interested in promoting strife be-
tween the Spanish- American countries, and might be so interested
in the future, while the interest of the United States was wholly
and always on the side of peace with all our American neighbors,
and peace between them all.
It was therefore the President's belief, that mere incidental
and partial adjustments failed to attain the desired end, and that
a common agreement of peace, permanent in its character and
continental in its extent, should if possible be secured. To effect
this end it had been resolved, before the fatal shot of July 2, to
invite all the independent governments of North and South
America to meet in a Peace Congress at Washington. The date
to be assigned was the iifteenth of March, 1882, and the invi-
tations would have been issued directly after the New England
tour, which the President was not permitted to make. Nearly
six months later, on the twenty-second of November, President
Garfield's successor issued the invitations for the Peace Congress
in the same spirit and scope, and with the same limitations and
restrictions that had been originally designed.
As soon as the project was understood in South America it
received a most cordial approval, and some of the countries, not
following the leisurely routine of diplomatic correspondence,
made haste to accept the invitation. There can be no doubt
that within a brief period all the nations invited would have
formally signified their readiness to attend the Congress; but in
six weeks after the invitations had gone to the several countries,
President Arthur caused them to be recalled, or at least sus-
pended. The subject was afterwards referred to Congress, in a
special message, in which the President ably vindicated his con-
stitutional right to assemble the Peace Congress, but expressed
a desire that the legislative department of the Government should
give an opinion upon the expediency of the step before the Con-
gress should be allowed to convene. Meanwhile the nations that
received the invitations were in an embarrassing situation ; for
after they were asked by the President to come, they found that
232 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
the matter had been considered and referred to another depart-
ment of the Government. This change was universally accepted
as a practical though indirect abandonment of the project, for it
was not from the first probable that Congress would take any
action whatever upon the subject. The good- will and welcome
of the invitation would be destroyed by a long debate in the
Senate and House, in which the question would necessarily be-
come intermixed with personal and party politics, and the proj-
ect would be ultimately wrecked from the same cause and by
the same process that destroyed the usefulness of the Panama
Congress, more than fifty years ago, when Mr, Clay was Secretary
of State. The time of Congressional action would have been
after the Peace Conference had closed its labors. The Confer-
ence could not agree upon anything that would be binding upon
the United States, unless assented to as a treaty by the Senate,
or enacted into a law by both branches. The assembling of the
Peace Conference, as President Arthur so well demonstrated, was
not in derogation of any right or prerogative of the Senate or
House. The money necessary for the expenses of the Confer-
ence— which would not have exceeded ten thousand dollars —
could not, by reason of propriety, have been refused by Congress.
K it had been refused, patriotism and philanthropy would have
promptly supplied it.
The Spanish- American States are in special need of the help
which the Peace Congress would afibrd them. They require ex-
ternal pressure to keep them from war. When at war they
require external pressure to bring them to peace. The moral
influence upon the Spanish-American people of such an inter-
national assembly as the Peace Congress, called by the invitation
and meeting under the auspices of the United States, would
have proved beneficent and far-reaching. It would have raised
the standard of their civilization. It would have turned their
attention to the things of peace ; and the continent, whose un-
developed wealth amazed Humboldt, might have had a new life
given to it, a new and splendid career opened to its inhabitants.
Such friendly interventions as the proposed Peace Congress,
and as the attempt to restore peace between Chili and Peru, fall
SECRETARY OF STATE. 233
within the line of both duty and interest on the part of the
United States, nations, like individuals, often require the aid of
a common friend to restore relations of amity. Peru and Chili
are in deplorable need of a wise and powerful mediator. Though
exhausted by war, they are unable to make peace, and, unless
they shall be aided by the intervention of a friend, political an-
archy and social disorder will come to the conquered, and evils
scarcely less serious to the conqueror. Our own Government
cannot take the ground that it will not offer friendly interven-
tion to settle troubles between American countries, unless at the
same time it freely concedes to European governments the rights
of such intervention, and thus consents to a practical destruction
of the Monroe Doctrine and an unlimited increase of European
monarchical influence on this continent. The late special envoy
to Peru and Chili, Mr. Trescott, gives it as his deliberate and
published conclusion that if the instructions under which he set
out upon his mission had not been revoked, peace between those
angry belligerents would have been established as the result of
his labors — necessarily to the great benefit of the United States.
If our Government does not resume its efforts to secure peace
in South America, some European government will be forced to
perform that friendly oflfice. The United States cannot play be-
tween nations the part of the dog in the manger. We must per-
form the duty of humane intervention ourselves, or give way to
foreign governments that are willing to accept the responsibility
of the great trust, and secure the enhanced influence and num-
berless advantages resulting from such a philanthropic and benefi-
cent course.
A most significant and important result would have followed
the assembling of the Peace Congress. A friendship and an inti-
macy would have been established between the States of North
and South America, which would have demanded and enforced a
closer commercial connection. A movement in the near future,
as the legitimate outgrowth of assured peace, would, in all prob-
abihty, have been a great commercial conference at the city of
Mexico or Eio Janeiro, whose deliberations would be directed to
a better system of trade on the two continents.
234 BIOGKAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
To such a conference the Dominion of Canada could properly
be asked to send representatives, as that government is allowed
by Great Britain a very large liberty in regulating its commercial
relations. In the Peace Congress, to be composed of independent
governments, the Dominion could not have taken any part, and
was consequently not invited. From this trade conference of
the two continents the United States could hardly have failed to
gain great advantages. At present the commercial relations of
this country with the Spanish- American countries, both conti-
nental and insular, are unsatisfactory and unprofitable ; indeed,
those relations are absolutely oppressive to the financial interests
of the Government and people of the United States. In our
current exchanges it requires about $120,000,000 to pay the
balance which Spanish America brings against us every year.
This amount is fifty per cent, more than the average annual
product of the gold and silver mines of the United States during
the past five years. This vast sum does not, of course, go to
Spanish America in coin, but it goes across the ocean in coin or
its equivalent, to pay European countries for manufactured
articles which they furnish to Spanish America — a large propor-
tion of which should be furnished by the manufacturers of the
United States.
At this point of the argument the free-trader appears and
declares that our protective tariff destroys our power of compe-
tition with European countries, and that if we will abolish pro-
tection we shall soon have South American trade. The answer
is not sufiBcient, for to-day there are many articles which we can
send to South America and sell as cheaply as European manu-
facturers can furnish them. It is idle, of course, to make this
statement to the genuine apostle of free trade and the implacable
enemy of protection, for the great postulate of his argument, the
foundation of his creed, is that nothing can be made as cheaply
in America as in Europe. Nevertheless, facts are stubborn, and
the hard figures of arithmetic cannot be satisfactorily answered
by airy figures of speech. The truth remains that the coarser
descriptions of cottons and cotton prints, boots and shoes, ordi-
nary household furniture, harness for draft animals, agricultural
Si:ORETARY OF STATE. 235
implements of all kinds, doors, sashes and blinds, locks, bolts and
hinges, silver-ware, plated-ware, wooden-ware, ordinary papers
and paper hangings, common vehicles, ordinary window glass
and glass-ware, rubber goods, coal oils, lard oils, kerosenes, white
lead, lead pipe and articles in which lead is a chief component,
can be and are produced as cheaply in the United States as in
any other part of the world. The list of such articles might be
lengthened by the addition of those classed as "notions," but
enough only are given to show that this country would, with
proper commercial arrangements, export much more largely than
it now does to Spanish America
In the trade relations of the world it does not follow that mere
ability to produce as cheaply as another nation insures a division
of an established market, or, indeed, any participation in it.
France manufactures many articles as cheaply as England — some
articles at even less cost. Portugal lies nearer to France than to
England, and the expense of transporting the French fabric to
the Portuguese market is therefore less than the transportation
of the English fabric. And yet Great Britain has almost a mo-
nopoly in the trade of Portugal. The same condition applies,
though in a less degree, in the trade of Turkey, Syria, and Egypt,
which England holds to a much greater extent than any of the
other European nations that are able to produce the same fabric
as cheaply. If it be said in answer that England has special
trade relations by treaty with Portugal, and special obligations
binding the other countries, the ready answer is that she has no
more favorable position with regard to those countries than can
be readily and easily acquired by the United States with respect
to all the countries of America. That end will be reached when-
*ever the United States desires it and wills it, and is ready to take
the steps necessary to secure it.
At present the trade with Spanish America runs so strongly in
channels adverse to us that, besides our inability to furnish manu-
factured articles, we do not get the profit on our own raw prod-
ucts that are shipped there. Our petroleum reaches most of the
Spanish- American ports after twice crossing the Atlantic, paying
often a better profit to the European middle-man who handles it
236 BIOGRAPHY OF HOlt. jAMES G. BLAlNi.
than it does to the producer of the oil in the northwestern coun-
ties of Pennsylvania. Flour and pork from the West reach Cuba
by way of Spain, and though we buy and consume ninety per
cent, of th& total products of Cuba, almost that proportion of her
purchases are made in Europe — made, of course, with money fur-
nished directly from our pockets.
As our exports to Spanish America grow less, as European
exports constantly grow larger, the balance against us will show
an annual increase, and will continue to exhaust our supply of
the precious metals. We are increasing our imports from South
America, and the millions we annually pay for coffee, wool,
hides, guano, cinchona, caoutchouc, cabinet-woods, dyewoods,
and other articles, go for the ultimate benefit of European manu-
facturers who take the gold from us and send their fabrics to
Spanish America. If we could send our fabrics our gold would
stay at home, and our general prosperity would be sensibly
increased. But so long as we repel Spanish America, so long as
we leave her to cultivate intimate relations with Europe alone, so
long our trade relations will remain unsatisfactory and, even em-
barrassing. Those countries sell to us very heavily. They buy
from us very lightly. And the amount they bring us in debt
each year is larger than the heaviest aggregate balance of trade
we ever have against us in the worst of times. The average
balance against us for the whole world in the five most adverse
years we ever experienced was about one hundred millions of
dollars. This plainly shows that in our European exchanges
there is always a balance in our favor, and that our chief defi-
ciency arises from our maladjusted commercial relations with
Spanish America. It follows that if our Spanish -American
trade were placed on a better and more equitable foundation, it
would be almost impossible, even in years most unfavorable to
us, to bring -us in debt to the world.
With such heavy purchases as we are compelled to make from
Spanish America, it could hardly be expected that we should
be able to adjust the entire account by exports. But the balance
against us of one hundred and twenty millions in gold coin is
far too large, and in time of stringency is a standing menace of
SECRETARY OF STATE. 237
financial disaster. It should not be forgotten that every million
dollars of products or fabrics that we sell in Spanish America is
a million dollars in 'gold saved to our own country. The imme-
diate profit is to the producer and the exporter, but the entire
country realizes a gain in the ease and affluence of the money
market which is insured by keeping our gold at home. The
question involved is so large, the object to be achieved is so
great, that no effort on the part of the government to accom-
plish it could be too earnest or too long continued.
It is only claimed for the Peace Congress, designed under the
Administration of Garfield, that it was an important and impres-
sive step on the part of the United States toward closer relation-
ship witii our continental neighbors. The present tendency in
those countries is toward Europe, and it is a lamentable fact that
their people are not so near to us in feeling as they were sixty
years ago, when they threw off the yoke of Spanish tyranny.
Already one of the most dangerous of movements — that of a
European guarantee and guardianship of the Interoceanic Canal
— is suggested and urged upon the great foreign powers by repre-
sentatives of a South American country. If these tendencies are
to be averted, if Spanish- American friendship is to be regained,
if the commercial empire that legitimately belongs to us is to be
ours, we must not lie idle and witness its transfer to others. If
we would re-conquer it, a great first step must be taken. It is
the first step that costs. It is also the first step that counts. Can
there be suggested a wiser step than the Peace Congress of the
two Americas, that was devised under Garfield and had the weight
of his great name ?
In no event could harm have resulted in the assembling of the
Peace Congress. The labors of the Congress would have proba-
bly ended in a well-digested system of arbitration, under which
all troubles between American States could be quickly, effectually,
and satisfactorily adjusted. The example of seventeen indepen-
dent nations solemnly agreeing to abolish the arbitrament of the
sword, and to settle every dispute by peaceful methods of adjudi-
cation, would have exerted an influence to the utmost confines of
civilization, and upon the generations of men yet to come,
238 BIOGRAPHY OF HON, JAMES G. BLAINE.
A political episode of the Garfield Administration in which
Mr. Blaine was presumably concerned, demands notice in pass-
ing. In June, 1881, the President submitted to the Senate
for confirmation, the appointment of Judge Robertson to be
Collector of the Port of New York, Collector Merritt, an
efficient officer about whose integrity no suspicions had ever
been raised, was removed and given a subordinate position to
make way for the new appointee. Senator Conkling vigorously
o[)posed the confirmation, and failing to prevent it, with his
colleague, Mr. Piatt, resigned his seat. We are not concerned
here with the history of the Stalwart-Half-Breed quarrels.
They may have had their origin in the personal hostilities be-
tween Mr, Blaine and Mr. Conkling, who were the recognized
leaders of the two factions. Perhaps Mr. Blaine, as the ad-
viser of the Garfield Administration, was responsible for the
nomination of Mr. Eobertson. Perhaps the removal of a
faithful officer in order to provide a place for a political friend,
however worthy and capable, is not to be justified on any
principle of Civil Service Eeform. The controversy is familiar.
The facts are common property. The breach is healed. Let
him open it again who will. There is nothing but lampblack
in it for anybody concerned, and we have no whitewash. The
whole quarrel reminds one of the Englishman who, after des-
perately resisting two highway robbers, was found to hate on
his person only one battered sixpence, and on being asked why
he had fought so hard and so long for such a mere song, re-
plied, as he wiped the dust and blood from his face : " To
tell you the truth, gentlemen, I was afraid to have you know
how little I had to fight for."
We need not repeat the story of the murder of President
Garfield by the assassin, C. A. Guiteau, on the fatal 2d of July,
1881, when the shot was fired in the Baltimore and Ohio
Btatioji, at Washington, Mr. Blaine was in the waiting-room.
SECRETARY OF STATE. 239
He followed his wounded chief back to the White House.
Then he watched till September 19th, and the guard was re-
lieved. With anxious, tender care he kept his place by the
side of the dying President. With wisdom he directed,
meanwhile, the administration of the Government. When
Congress would hear the praises of him whom in life the peo-
ple had learned to respect for his honor, and trust for his
sagacity and courage, they chose his best friend to tell the
story. Mr. Blaine had stood very close to Mr. Garfield. There
had sprung up between them an intimacy which is not common
among men, independent of political ties, extending beyond
political interests, knitting man to man in a profitable union —
a union of sympathy, of help, of mutual affection. It was
fitting, therefore, that the living friend should speak for his
silent companion. The eulogy was delivered in the hall of the
House of Kepresentatives, February 27, 1882. President
Arthur and Cabinet, Generals of the Army, Admirals of the
Navy, the Diplomatic Corps in full regalia, the Supreme Court
of the United States, Senators, Kepresentatives, and distin-
guished citizens were gathered there in the hall which had
80 often resounded with the voice of the murdered President
to hear another speak his eulogy. After a short prayer the
President of the Senate, David Davis, arose and said : " This
day is dedicated by Congress for memorial services of the late
President of the United States, James A. Garfield. I present
to you the Hon. James G. Blaine, who has been fitly chosen
as the orator for this historical occasion."
Mr. Blaine delivered his memorial oration from manuscript,
speaking from the clerk's desk. His tone was subdued, but clear
and impressive.
Mr. President : Por the second time in this generation the
great departments of the Government of the United States are
assembled in the Hall of Representatives to do honor to the
24D BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
memory of a murdered President. Lincoln fell at the close of a
mighty struggle in which the passions of men had been deeply
stirred. The tragical termination of his great life added but
another to the lengthened succession of horrors which had
marked so many lintels with the blood of the first-born. Garfield
was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled to
brother, and when anger and hate had been banished from the
land. '* Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if
he will show it as it has been exhibited where such example was
last to have been looked for, let him not give it the grim visage
of Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with set-
tled hate. Let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, blood-
less demon ; not so much an example of human nature in its
depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as an infernal being, a
fiend in the ordinary display and development of his character."
From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth till the upris-
ing against Charles I., about twenty thousand emigrants came
from Old England to New England. As they came in pursuit of
intellectual freedon^ and ecclesiastical independence rather than
for worldly honor and profit, the emigration naturally ceased when
the contest for rehgious liberty began in earnest at home. The
man who struck his most effective blow for freedom of conscience
by sailing for the colonies in 1620 would have been accounted a
deserter to leave after 1640. The opportunity had then come on
the soil of England for that great contest which estabhshed the
authority of Parliament, gave religious freedom to the people,
sent Charles to the block, and committed to the hands of Oliver
Cromwell the supreme executive authority of England. The
English emigration was never renewed, and from these twenty
thousand men, and from a small emigration from Scotland, from
Ireland, and from France, are descended the vast numbers who
have New England blood in their veins.
In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.
scattered to other countries four hundred thousand Protestants,
who were among the most intelligent and enterprising of French
subjects — merchants of capital, skilled manufacturers and handi-
craftsmen, superior at the time to all others in Europe. A con-
SECRETARY OF STATE. 241
siderable number of these Huguenot French came to America; a
few landed in New England and became honorably prominent in
its history. Their names have in part become anglicized, or have
disappeared, but their blood is traceable in many of the most
reputable families, and their fame is perpetuated in honorable
memorials and useful institutions.
From these two sources, the English-Puritan and the French-
Huguenot, came the late President — his father, Abram Garfield,
being descended from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballon,
from the other.
It was good stock on both sides — none better, none braver,
none truer. There was in it an inheritance of courage, of man-
liness, of imperishable love of liberty, of und}dng adherence to
principle. Garfield was proud of his blood ; and, with as much
satisfaction as if he were a British nobleman reading his stately
ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he spoke of himself as ninth
in descent from those who would not endure the oppression of
the Stuarts, the seventh in descent from the brave French Prot-
estants who refused to submit to tyranny even from the Grand
Monarque,
General Garfield delighted to dwell on these traits, and during
his only visit to England, he busied himself in searching out
every trace of his forefathers in parish registries and on ancient
army-rolls. Sitting with a friend in the gallery of the House of
Commons, one night, after a long day's labor in this field of re-
search, he said, with evident elation, that in every war in which
for three centuries patriots of English blood had struck sturdy
blows for constitutional government and human liberty, his
family had been represented. They were at Marston Moor, at
Naseby, and at Preston ; they were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga,
and at Monmouth ; and in his own person had battled for the
same gi-eat cause in the war which preserved the Union of the
States.
His father dying before he was two years old, Garfield's early
life was one of privation, but its poverty has been made indeli-
cately and unjustly prominent. Thousands of readers have
imagined him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality too
242 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
often greets the eye in the squalid sections of our large cities.
General Garfield's infancy and youth had none of this destitution,
none of these pitiful features appealing to tlie tender heart and
to the open hand of charity. He was a poor boy in the same
sense in which Henry Clay was a poor boy; in which Andrew
Jackson was a poor boy ; in which Daniel Webster was a poor
boy; in the sense in which a large majority of the eminent men
of America in all generations have been poor boys. Before a
great multitude, in a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this testi-
mony :
" It did not happen to me to be born in a log-cabin, bnt my
elder brothers and sisters were born in a log-cabin raised amid
the snowdrifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when
the smoke rose first from its rude chimney and curled over the
frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habi-
tation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada.
Its remains still exist. 1 make to it an annual visit. I carry my
children to it to teach them the hardships endured by the genera-
tions which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender
recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the touch-
ing narratives and incidents which mingle with all I know of this
primitive family abode."
With the requisite change of scene, the same words would aptly
portray the early days of Garfield. The poverty of the frontier,
where all are engaged in a common struggle, and where a com-
mon sympathy and hearty co-operation lighten the burdens of
each, is a very different poverty— different in kind, different in
influence and effect, from the conscious and humiliating indi-
gence which is every day forced to contrast itself with neighbor-
ing wealth on which it feels a sense of grinding dependence. The
poverty of the frontier is indeed no poverty. It is but the begin-
ning of wealth, and has the boundless possibilities of the future
always opening before it. No man ever grew up in the agricul-
tural regions of the West, where a house-raising, or even a corn-
husking, is matter of common interest and helpfulness, with any
other feeling than that of broad-minded, generous independence.
This honorable independence marked the youtli of Garfield, as it
SECRETARY OF STATE. 243
marks the youth of millions of the best blood and brain now-
training for the future citizenship and future government of the
Eepublic. Garfield was born heir to land, to the title of free-
holder, which has been the patent and passport of self-respect
with the Anglo-Saxon race ever since Hengisb and Horsa landed
on the shores of England. His adventure on the canal — an alter-
native between that and the deck of a Lake Erie schooner — was
a farmer-boy's device for earning money, just as the New Eng-
land lad begins a possibly great career by sailing before the mast
on a coasting vessel, or on a merchantman bound to the farther
India or to the China seas.
No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early
struggles with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier
pride than when he has conquered the obstacles to his progress.
But no one of noble mould desires to be looked upon as having
occupied a menial position, as having been repressed by a feeling
of inferiority, or as having suffered the evils of poverty until
relief was found at the hand of charity. General Garfield's youth
presented no hardships which family love and family energy did
not overcome, subjected him to no privations which he did not
cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those which were
recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with pride.
Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were ex-
tremely limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an in-
tense desire to learn. He could read at three years of age, and
each winter he had the advantage of the district-school. He
read all the books to be found within the circle of his acquaint-
ance ; some of them he got by heart. While yet in childhood he
was a constant student of the Bible, and became familiar with
its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his speech in his
maturer life gave evidence of this early training. At eighteen
years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his
ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent
all his efforts, working in the harvest-field, at the carpenter's
bench, and, in the winter season, teaching the common-schools
of the neighborhood. While thus laboriously occupied he found
time to prosecute his studies, and was so successful that at
244 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
twenty-two years of age he was able to enter the junior class at
Williams College, then under the presidency of the venerable and
honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his powers, sur-
vives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable service.
The history of Garfield's life to this period presents no novel
features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self-reliance,
self-sacrifice, and ambition — qualities wl\ich, be it said for the
honor of our country, are everywhere to be found among the
young men of America. But from his graduation at Williams
onward, to the hour of his tragical death, Garfield's career was
eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through his educational
period, receiving his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he
seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous and brilliant
success. Within six years he was successively president of a
college. State Senator of Ohio, Major-General of the Army of the
United States, and Kepresentative-elect to the National Congress.
A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period
so brief and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel
in the history of the country.
Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowl-
edge than such as he had hastily gained fi-om books in the few
months preceding his march to the field. Stepping from civil
life to the head of a regiment, the first order he received when
ready to cross to Ohio was to assume command of a brigade, and
to operate as an independent force in Eastern Kentucky. His
immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey Marshall,
who was marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of
occupying, in connection with the other Confederate forces, the
entire territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into
secession. This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if
ever, has a young college professor been thrown into a more
embarrassing and discouraging position. He knew just enough
of military science, as he expressed it himself, to measure the
extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of men, he was
marching, in rough winter weather, into a strange country,
among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior force
lender the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point,
SECRETARY Of STAffi. 245
who had seen active and important service iii tWo preceding
wars.
The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill,
the endurance, the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the
courage he imparted to his men, raw and untired as himself, the
measures he adopted to increase • his force and create in the
enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his numbers, bore perfect
fruit in the routing of Marshall, the capture of his camp, the dis-
persion of his force, and the emancipation of an important ter-
ritory from the control of the rebellion. Coming at the close of
a long series of disasters to the Union arms, Garfield's victory
had an unusual and extraneous importance, and in the popular
judgment elevated the young commander to the rank of a mili-
tary hero. With less than two thousand men in his entire com-
mand, with a mobilized force of only eleven hundred, without
cannon, he had met an army of five thousand and defeated them
—driving Marshall's forces successively from two strongholds of
their own selection, fortified with abundant artillery. Major-
General Buell, commanding the Department of the Ohio, an ex-
perienced and able soldier of the regular army, published an order
of thanks and congratulation on the brilliant result of the Big
Sandy campaign, which would have turned the head of a less cool
and sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared that his services
had called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and
President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the
more substantial reward of a brigadier-general's commission, to
bear date from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall.
The subsequent military career of Garfield fully sustained its
brilliant beginning. With his new commission he was assigned
to the command of a brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took
part in the second and decisive day's fight on the bloody field of
Shiloh. The remainder of the year 1862 was not especially
eventful to Garfield, as it was not to the armies with which he
was serving. His practical sense was called into exercise in com-
pleting the task, assigned him by General Buell, of reconstruct-
ing bridges and re-establishing lines of railway communication
for the army. His occupation in this useful but not brilliant
246 BIOGRAPHY OF HOIf. JAMES G. BLAINE.
field was varied by service on courts-martial of importance, iii
which department of duty he won a valuable reputation, attract-
ing the notice and securing the approval of the able and eminent
Judge Advocate-General of the Army. This of itself was warrant
to honorable fame ; for among the great men who in those trying
days gave themselves, with entire devotion, to the service of their
country, one who brought to that service the ripest learning, the
most fervid eloquence, the most varied attainments, who labored
with modesty and shunned applause, who in the day of triumph
sat reserved and silent and grateful, — as Francis Deak in the
hour of Hungary's deliverance, — was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky,
who in his honorable retirement enjoys the respect and venera-
tion of all who love the Union of the States.
Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the highly important
and responsible post of chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans, then
at the head of the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great
military campaign no subordinate oflBcer requires sounder judg-
ment and quicker knowledge of men than the chief-of-staff to the
commanding general. An indiscreet man in such a position can
sow more discord, breed more jealousy, and disseminate more
strife, than any other officer in the entire organization. When
General Garfield assumed his new duties he found various
troubles already well developed and seriously affecting the value
and efficiency of the Army of the Cumberland. The energy, the
impartiality, and the tact with which he sought to allay these
dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new and trying
position, will always remain one of the most striking proofs of
his great versatility. His military duties closed on the memor-
able field of Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to
the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of winning imperish-
able laurels. The very rare distinction was accorded him of a
great promotion for bravery on a field that was lost. President
Lincoln appointed him a Major-General in the Army of the
United States for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle
of Chickamauga.
The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the com-
mand of General Thomas, who promptly offered Garfield one of
SECBETAllY OF STATE. 247
its divisions. He was extremely desirous to accept the position,
but was embarrassed by the fact that he had, a year before, been
elected to Congress, and the time when he must take his seat
was drawing near. He preferred to remain in the mihtary
service, and had within his own breast the largest confidence of
success in the wider field which his new rank opened to him.
Balancing the arguments on the one side and the other, anxious
to determine what was for the best, desirous above all things to
do his patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by the advice
of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom
assured him that he could, at that time, be of especial value in
the House of Eepresentatives. He resigned his commission of
major-general on the fifth day of December, 1863, and took his
seat in the House of Eepresentatives on the seventh. He had
served two years and four months in the army, and had just
completed his thirty-second year.
The Thirty-eighth Congress is pre-eminently entitled in history
to the designation of the War Congress. It was elected while
the war was flagrant, and every member was chosen upon the
issues involved in the continuance of the struggle. The Thirty-
seventh Congress had, indeed, legislated to a large extent on war
measures, but it was chosen before any one believed that secession
of the States would be actually attempted. The magnitude of
the work which fell upon its successor was unprecedented, both
in respect to the vast sums of money raised for the support of the
army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary powers of leg-
islation which it was forced to exercise. Only twenty-four States
were represented, and one hundred and eighty-two members
were upon its roll. Among these were many distinguished party
leaders on both sides, veterans in the public service, with estab-
lished reputations for ability, and with that skill which comes
only from" parliamentary experience. Into this assemblage of
men Garfield entered withouc special preparation, and, it might
almost be said, unexpectedly. The question of taking command
of a division of troops under General Thomas, or taking his seat
in Congress, was kept open till the last moment, so late, indeed,
that the resignation of his military commission and his appear-
248 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAlNE.
ance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He wore the
uniform of a Major-General of the United States Army on Satur-
day, and on Monday, in civilian's dress, he answered to the roll-
call as a Eepresentative in Congress from the State of Ohio.
He was especially fortunate in the constituency which elected
him. Descended almost entirely from New England stock, the
men of the Ashtabula district were intensely radical on all ques-
tions relating to human rights. Well-educated, thrifty, thorough-
ly intelligent in affairs, acutely discerning of character, not quick
to bestow confidence, and slow to withdraw it, they were at once
the most helpful and most exacting of supporters. Their tena-
cious trust in men in whom they have once confided is illustrated
by the unparalleled fact that Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua K. Gid-
dings, and James A. Garfield represented the district for fifty-
four years.
There is no test of a man's ability in any department of public
life more severe than service in the House of Eepresentatives ;
there is no place where so little deference is paid to reputation
previously acquired, or to eminence won outside ; no place where
so little consideration is shown for the feelings or the failures of
beginners. What a man gains in the House he gains by sheer
force of his own character, and if he loses and falls back he must
expect no mercy, and will receive no sympathy. It is a field in
which the survival of the strongest is the recognized rule, and
where no pretense can deceive and no glamour can mislead.
The real man is discovered, his worth is impartially weighed, his
rank is irreversibly decreed.
With possibly a single exception, Garfield was the youngest
member in the House when he entered, and was but seven years
from his college graduation. But he had not been in his seat
sixty days before his ability was recognized and his place con-
ceded. He stepped to the front with the confidence of one who
belonged there. The House was crowded with strong men of
both parties ; nineteen of them have since been transferred to the
Senate, and many of them have served with distinction in the
gubernatorial chairs of their respective States and on foreign
missions of great consequence ; but among them all none grew
SECRETARY OF STATE. 249
SO rapidly, none so firmly, as Garfield. As is said by Trevelyan
of his parliamentary hero, Garfield succeeded "because all the
world in concert could not have kept him in the background,
and because when once in the front he played his part with a
prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease that were but the
outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy on which
it was in his power to draw." Indeed, the apparently reserved
force which Garfield possessed was one of his great characteris-
tics. He never did so well, but that it seemed he could easily
have done better. He never expended so much strength but
that he appeared to be holding additional power at call. This is
one of the happiest and rarest distinctions of an effective debater,
and often counts for as much, in persuading an assembly, as the
eloquent and elaborate argument.
The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service
in the House of Eepresentatives. His military life, illustrated
by honorable performance, and rich in promise, was, as he him-
self felt, prematurely terminated, and necessarily incomplete.
Speculation as to what he might have done in a field where the
great prizes are so few, cannot be profitable. It is sufficient to
say that as a soldier he did his duty bravely; he did it intelli-
gently ; he won an enviable fame, and he retired from the service
without blot or breath against him. As a lawyer, though ad-
mirably equipped for the profession, he can scarcely be said to
have entered on its practice. The few efforts he made at the
bar were distinguished by the same high order of talent which
he exhibited on every field where he was put to the test ; and, if
a man may be accepted as a competent judge of his own capaci-
ties and adaptations, the law was the profession to which Garfield
should have devoted himself. But fate ordained otherwise, and
his reputation in history will rest largely upon his service in the
House of Eepresentatives. That service was exceptionally long.
He was nine times consecutively chosen to the House, an honor
enjoyed probably by not twenty other Eepresentatives of the
more than five thousand who have been elected from the organi-
zation of the Government to this hour.
As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely
250 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINF.
joined, where the position had been chosen and the ground laid
out, Garfield must be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps,
than any man with whom he was associated in public life, he
gave careful and systematic study to public questions, and he
came to every discussion in which he took part with elaborate
and complete preparation. He was a steady and indefatigable
worker. Those who imagine that talent or genius can supply
the place or achieve the results of labor will find no encourage-
ment in Garfield's life. In preliminary work he was apt, rapid,
and skillful. He possessed in a high degree the power of readily
absorbing ideas and facts, and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of
getting from a book all that was of value in it by a reading
apparently so quick and cursory that it seemed like a mere glance
at the table of contents. He was a pre-eminently fair and candid
man in debate, took no petty advantage, stooped to no unworthy
methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely appealed to prejudice,
did not seek to inflame passion. He had a quicker eye for the
strong point of his adversary than for his weak point, and on his
own side he so marshaled his weighty arguments as to make his
hearers forget any possible lack in the complete strength of his
position. He had a habit of stating his opponent's side with
such amplitude of fairness and such liberality of concession that
his followers often complained that he was giving his case away.
But never in his prolonged participation in the proceedings of
the House did he give his case away, or fail in the judgment of
competent and impartial listeners to gain the mastery.
These characteristics, which marked Garfield as a gi'eat de-
bater, did not, however, make him a great parliamentary leader.
A parliamentary leader, as that term is understood wherever free
representative government exists, is necessarily and very strictly
the organ of his party. An ardent American defined the instinct-
ive warmth of patriotism when he offered the toast : " Our
country always right ; but right or wrong, our country." The
parliamentary leader who has a body of followers that will do
and dare and die for the cause is one who believes his party
always right, but right or wrong is for his party. No more im-
portant or exacting duty d,evolves upon him than the ^eleotioij of
SECRETARY OF STATE. 251
the field and the time for contest. He must know not merely
how to strike, but where to strike and when to strike. He often
skillfully avoids the strength of his opponent's position and
scatters confusion in his ranks by attacking an exposed point
when really the righteousness of the cause and the strength of
logical intrenchment are against him. He conquers often
against the right and the heavy battalions ; as when young
Charles Fox, in the days of his Toryism, carried the House of
Commons against Justice, against its immemorial rights, against
his own convictions, if, indeed, at that period. Fox had convic-
tions, and, in the interest of a corrupt administration, in obedience
to a tyrannical sovereign, drove Wilkes from the seat to which
the electors of Middlesex had chosen him, and installed Luttrell,
in defiance not merely of law but of public decency. For
achievement of that kind Garfield was disqualified— disqualified
by the texture of his mind, by the honesty of his heart, by his
conscience, and by every instinct and aspiration of his nature.
The three most distinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto
developed in this country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglas, and Mr.
Thaddeus Stevens. They were all men of consummate ability,
of great earnestness, of intense personality, differing widely each
from the others, and yet with a single trait in common — the
power to command. In the give-and-take of daily discussion, in
the art of controlling and consolidating reluctant and refractory
followers, in the skill to overcome all forms of opposition, and
to meet with competency and courage the varying phases of
unlooked-for assault or unsuspected defection, it would be
difficult to rank with these a fourth name in all our Con-
gressional history. But of these Mr. Clay was the greatest. It
would, perhaps, be impossible to find in the parliamentary annals
of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay, in 1841, when at sixty-four
years of age he took the control of the Whig party from the
President who had received their suffrages, against the power of
Webster in the Cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the
Senate, against the herculean efforts of Caleb Cushiug and
Henry A. Wise in the House. In unshared leadership, in the
pride and plenitude of power^ he hurled against John Tyler with
252 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
deepest scorn the mass of that conquering column which had
swept over the land in 1840, and drove his administration to
seek shelter behind the lines of its political foes. Mr. Douglas
achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful when,. in 1854, against
the secret desires of a strong administration, against the wise
counsel of the older chiefs, against the conservative instincts
and even the moral sense of the country, he forced a reluctant
Congress into a repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, in his contests from 1865 to 1868,
actually advanced his parliamentary leadership until Congress
tied the hands of the President and governed the country by its
own will, leaving only perfunctory duties to be discharged by
the Executive. With two hundred millions of patronage in his
hands at the opening of the contest, aided by the active force of
Seward in the Cabinet and the moral power of Chase on the
bench, Andrew Johnson could not command the support of one-
third in either House against the parliamentary uprising of
which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating spirit and the un-
questioned leader. From these three great men Garfield differed
radically: differed in the quality of his mind, in temperament,
in the form and phase of ambition. He could not do what they
did, but he could do what they could not, and in the breadth of
his Congressional work he left that which will longer exert a
potential influence among men, and which, measured by the
severe test of posthumous criticism, will secure a more enduring
and more enviable fame.
Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry, and ignorant of the
details of his work, may, in some degree, measure them by the
annals of Congress. No one of the generation of public men to
which he belonged has contributed so much that will prove
valuable for future reference. His speeches are numerous, many
of them brilliant, all of them well studied, carefully phrased,
and exhaustive of the subject under consideration. Collected
from the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo volumes of Con-
gressional record, they would present an invaluable compendium
of the political events of the most important era through which
the National Government has ever passed. When the history of
SECRETARY OF STATE. 253
this period shall be impartially written, when war legislation,
measures of reconstruction, protection of human rights, amend-
ments to the Constitution, maintenance of public credit, steps
toward specie resumption, true theories of revenue, may be re-
viewed, unsurrounded by prejudice and disconnected from par-
tisanism, the speeches of Garfield will be estimated at their true
value, and will be found to comprise a vast magazine of fact and
argument, of clear analysis and sound conclusion. Indeed, if no
other authority were accessible, his speeches in the House of
Kepresentatives from December, 1863, to June, 1880, would give
a well-connected history and complete defense of the important
legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute his
parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be
found to forecast many great measures yet to be completed —
measures which he knew were beyond the public opinion of the
hour, but which he confidently believed would secure popular
approval within the period of his own lifetime and by the aid of
his own efforts.
Difiering, as Garfield does, from the parliamentary leaders, it
is not easy to find his counterpart anywhere in the .record of
American public life. He, perhaps, more nearly resembles Mr.
Seward in his supremo faith in the all-conquering power of a
principle. He had the love of learning, and the patient industry
of investigation, to which John Quincy Adams owes his prom-
inence and his Presidency. He had some of those ponderous
elements of mind which distinguished Mr. Webster, and which,
indeed, in all our public life have left the great Massachusetts
Senator without an intellectual peer.
In English parliamentary history, as in our own, the leaders
in the House of Commons present points of essential difference
from Garfield. But some of his methods recall the best features
in the strong, independent course of Sir Robert Peel, to whom
he had striking resemblances in the type of his mind and in the
habit of his speech. He had all of Burke's love for the sublime
and the beautiful, with, possibly, something of his superabun-
dance. In his faith and his magnanimity, in his power of state-
ment, in his subtle analysis, in his faultless logic, in his love of
254 BIOGKAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
literature, in his wealth and world of illustration, one is reminded
of that great English statesman of to-day, who, confronted with
obstacles that would daunt any but the dauntless, reviled by
those whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those whose sup-
posed rights he is forced to invade, still labors with serene cour-
age for the amelioration of Ireland and for the honor of the
English name.
Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted
or anticipated, was not a surprise to the country. His promi-
nence in Congress, his solid qualities, his wide reputation,
strengthened by his then recent election as Senator from Ohio,
kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the very highest
rank among those entitled to be called statesmen. It was not
mere chance that brought him this high honor. "We must,"
says Mr. EmersoH, '"reckon success a constitutional trait. If
Eric is in robust health, and slept well, and is at the top of his
condition, and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland,
he will steer west and his ships will reach Newfoundland. But
take Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder man, and the
ships will sail six hundred, one thousand, fifteen hundred miles
farther, and reach Labrador and New England. There is no
chance in results."
As a candidate, Garfield grew steadily in popular favor. He
was met with a storm of detraction at the very hour of his nomi-
nation, and it continued with increasing volume and momentum
until the close of his victorious campaign :
" No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape ; backwounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue"?"
Under it all he was calm and strong and confident ; never lost
his self-possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-con-
sidered word. Indeed, nothing in his whole life is more remark-
able or more creditable than his bearing through five full months
of vituperation— a prolonged agony of trial to a sensitive man, a
constant and cruel draft upon the powers of moral endurance.
The great mass of these unjust imputations passed unnoticed,
SECRETARY OF STATE. 255
and with the general debris of the campaign fell into oblivion.
But in a few instances the iron entered his soul, and he died with
the injury unforgotten, if not unforgiven.
One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unprecedented. Never
before, in the history of partisan contests in this country, had a
successful Presidential candidate spoken freely on passing events
and current issues. To attempt anything of the kind seemed
novel, rash, and even desperate. The older class of voters re-
called the unfortunate Alabama letter, in which Mr. Clay was
supposed to have signed his political death-warrant. They re-
membered, also, the hot-tempered effusion by which General
Scott lost a large share of his popularity before his nomination,
and the unfortunate speeches which rapidly consumed the
remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley, in a
series of vigorous and original addresses, preparing the pathway
for his own defeat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding
the advice of friends, Garfield spoke to large crowds as he jour-
neyed to and from New York in August, to a great multitude in
that city, to delegations and deputations of every kind that
called at Mentor during the summer and autumn. With
innumerable critics, watchful and eager to catch a phrase that
might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a sentence that might
be distorted to his own or his party's injury, Garfield did not
trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all the
more remarkable when it is remembered that he did not write
what he said, and yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of
thought, and such admirable precision of phrase, as to defy the
accident of misreport and the malignity of misrepresentation.
The peroration fitly crowned an address of classic dignity
and power which, for its fair estimate of character, for the
fervor of its spirit, and for the beauty of its diction, has a clear
right to a place in the annals of American eloquence :
Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or tri-
umphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Gar-
field may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil
256 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
haunted him; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his
sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment
he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peace-
fully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, help-
less, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave.
Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no
cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the
red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this
world's interests, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into
the visible presence of death — and he did not quail. Not alone
for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could
give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through
days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not
less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm cour-
age, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met
his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell — what brilliant, broken
plans, what baffled high ambitions, what sundering of strong,
warm manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet house-
hold ties ! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host
of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the
full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth,
whose whole life lay in his ; the little boys not yet emerged from
childhood's day of frolic ; the fair young daughter ; the sturdy
sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every
day and every day rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his
heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before
him, desolation and great darkness ! And his soul was not
shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound,
and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he
became the center of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of
a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share
with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With
unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderuesi
he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's
bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation ho
bowed to the divine decree.
As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned.
SECKETABY OF STATE. 257
The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome
hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls,
from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its
hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the
pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to Hve or to die,
as Grod should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within
sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face, tenderly
lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the
ocean's changing wonders; on its fair sails, whitening in the
morning light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break
and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening,
arching low to the horizon ; on the serene and shining pathway
of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic
meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let
us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the
great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his
wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning.
Since his retirement from the Cabinet of President Arthur,
Mr. Blaine has been at work upon a history of "Twenty
Years of Congress." The first volume has already appeared.
Those who open the book expecting to find the superficial and
prejudiced opinions of an ardent political partisan, and those
who look for sectional animosity and special pleading in vindi-
cation of a party, will be disappointed. It is evidently the
fruit of careful and thorough study, and it is marked by per-
fect fairness of view, clearness of statement, and soundness of
conclusions. It is a genuine contribution to the United States
history, by a man who has the advantage of having been him-
self an actor in the scenes he describes, and of having a judg-
ment which has not been warped by prejudice. His generous
estimate of Chief Justice Taney, coming from a Northern
abolitionist, is remarkable, and is a fair example of the way in
which he treats men with whom he had no sympathy, and
whose opinions he heartily and consistently repudiates.
^58 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Chief Justice Taney, who delivered the opinion which proved
so obnoxious throughout the North, was not only a man of great
attainments, but was singularly pure and upright in his life and
conversation. Had his personal character been less exalted, or
his legal learning less eminent, there would have been less sur-
prise and less indignation. But the same qualities which ren-
dered his judgment of apparent value to the South, called out
intense hostility in the North. The lapse of years, however, cools
the passions and tempers the judgment. It has brought many
anti-slavery men to see that an unmerited share of the obloquy
properly attaching to the decision has been visited on the Chief
Justice, and that it was unfair to place him under such condem-
nation, while two Associate Justices in the North — Grier and
Nelson — joined in the decision without incurring special censure,
and lived in honor and veneration to the end of their judicial
careers. While, therefore, time has in no degree abated North-
ern hostility to the Dred Scott decision, it has thrown a more
generous light upon the character and action of the eminent
Chief Justice who pronounced it. More allowance is made for
the excitement and for what he believed to be the exigency of
the hour, for the sentiments in which he had been educated, for
the force of association, and for his genuine belief that he was
doing a valuable work towards the preservation of the Union.
His views were held by millions of people around liim, and he was
swept along by a current which with so many had proved irresist-
ible. Coming to the bench from Jackson's Cabinet, fresh from
the angry controversies of that partisan era, he had proved a
most acceptable and impartial judge, earning renown and escaping
censure until he dealt directly with the question of slavery.
Whatever harm he may have done in that decision was speedily
overruled by war, and the country can now contemplate a vener-
able jurist, in robes that were never soiled by corruption, leading
a long life of labor and sacrifice, and achieving a fame in his pro-
fession second only to that of Marshall.
CHAPTER XII.
THE NOMINATION.
Before the Convention. — The Blaine movement not a hot-house growth. —
Mr. Blaine's dignified attitude. — The Convention. — Organization. — At-
tempted combination. — The obstinate Independents. — Judge West's
nominating speech. — The supreme moment. — Receiving the news. — Con-
gratulations.— Formal announcement to Mr. Blaine. — The Platform.
"VT^^HILE -Mr. Blaine has been writing history in the retire-
V V ment of his library, his friends have been diligently
casting about in their minds how they might enable him to
make history in a National arena and under the attentive gaze
of fifty millions of people. The end is not yet. Without any
preconcerted movement, voices began to be heard up and down
tlirough the land, advocating the nomination of James G.
Blaine for the Presidency. By and by the voices grew louder,
until, swelling into one mighty chorus, which echoed from the
l^ine forests of Maine to the vineyards of California and back
again, they gave notice to the political world that an unmis-
takable " boom " was having free course in the land, and rapidly
taking unto itself much glory in numbers and strength. State
after State, with Pennsylvania in the van, wheeled into line
where the banner of the white plume was waving, and the
note of alarm was sounded in the enemy's camp.
The Blaine movement was in no sense a hot-house growth.
It sprang up as the forests do, not because it had been planted,
but because the seed was already in the ground. Of course it
was not left to grow utterly wild. The wild variety of politi-
cal plants is not an indigenous growth in this country, and
260 BIOGRAPHY Of HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
rarely thrives at all, except in the fertile soil of a rich imagina-
tion. However, the Blaine " boom " was sufficiently spontaneous,
and, as it seemed to jump with a wide-spread popular demand,
the little cultivating it got need trouble no orthodox political
purist. It is certainly a tribute to the popularity of the man,
and an evidence of the lasting loyalty of his friends, that so
much enthusiasm should be shown and so many supporters
won for him in a contest in which he had twice entered and
twice suffered defeat. There is something out of the common
run of human clay in a man who can be successively defeated.
Some one has truthfully said of Mr. Blaine's attitude in the
preliminary canvass :
The office has been taken to Mr. Blaine; he did not go after
it. No man, not even his most intimate associate, can say with
truth that Mr. Blaine has unduly pressed the recognition of him-
self. During the long and anxious struggle of the many candi-
dates for the honor he has won, Mr. Blaine has stood all aloof.
He has not put himself in a position to wrest the office or to
solicit it from the Convention. With most wise and commend-
able dignity he went, before the Convention met, to his distant
home in Maine, there to await events ; to accept the trust and
responsibility of the highest place of honor of all if it were offered
him, but saying nothing, doing nothing to gain it. He simply
kept himself in readiness to obey his country's call. It has called
him and he will answer it.
The Chicago Kepublican Convention of 1884 was the first
in twenty-five years in which the man who received the high-
est number of votes on the first ballot, was in the end nomi-
nated, except, of course, in the cases of the re-nomination of
Lincoln and Grrant. Lincoln, at his first election, and Hayes
and Garfield were compromise candidates. The Convention
of 1884 was called to order in the Exposition Building at Chi-
cago, Tuesday, June the third. The Hon. John R. Lynch, a
THE NOMINATION. 261
colored Congressman from Mississippi, was made temporary
Chairman, after a spirited contest, in which the Blaine candi-
date, Mr. Powell Clayton, was defeated by a combination of
the anti-Blaine forces. The permanent organization was
effected with General John B. Henderson, of Missouri, as
Chairman.
An allusion to Mr. Blaine, in the Chairman's opening speech,
as Maine's honored favorite, " whose splendid abilities and per-
sonal qualities have endeared him to the hearts of his friends,
and the brilliancy of whose genius challenges the admiration
of all," was the signal for prolonged and hearty applause.
Four times the cheers rang out from many throats, filling the
vast hall with a mighty inharmonious sound, as if a hundred
seas had been clamoring together at the barrier of the rocks.
At the mention of Mr. Arthur's name the cheering was again
renewed with nearly equal zeal and volume of sound. By
nightfall on the first day it was plain that the most votes were
for Blaine, and that it was a difficult matter to alienate a
single supporter. The next strongest candidate was President
Arthur. His friends claim that with the hearty co-operation
of the Edmunds men be might have been nominated, although
they acknowledged it was from the very first a Blaine Conven-
tion. The Edmunds contingent was worked over and plied
with every possible argument, but although they loved Blaine
less they did not love Arthur more. Somehow that one lone-
some little drop of independent oil would not mix with the
water in the Arthur stream, or in any other, and steadily per-
sisted in being always on the top.
The nominating speeches were made on Friday, June 5th.
As the roll of the States was read, Augustus Brand egee,
speaking for Connecticut, named General Hawley. Senator
CuUom, on behalf of Illinois, presented the name of General
Logan, Martin I. Townsend, of New York, had the honor of
262 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
representing the friends of President Arthur, and ex-Governor
Long, of Massachusetts, nominated Senator Edmunds.
" When ' Maine ' was spoken by the deep-voiced secretary,"
says a newspaper account, " there was a sudden explosion, and
in a twinkling the Convention was a scene of the wildest en-
thusiasm and excitement. Whole delegations mounted their
chairs and led the cheering, which instantly spread to the
stage and galleries, and deepened into a roar fully as deep and
deafening as the voice of Niagara. The scene was indescrib-
able. The air quivered, the gas-lights trembled, and the walls
fairly shook; the flags were stripped from the gallery and
stage and frantically waved, while hats, umbrellas, handker-
chiefs, and other personal belongings were tossed to and fro
like bubbles over the great dancing sea of human heads. For
a quarter of an hour the tumult lasted, and it only ceased
when people had exhausted themselves."
In the midst of the tumult Judge West, the blind orator
of Ohio, was led to the platform, where a seat had been pro-
vided for him at the left of the presiding officer's chair. Three
score years and ten had whitened his hairs and beard, but the
fire was still left in his eyes and his voice had lost none of its
melody and commanding power. To him had been allotted
the duty of nominating Mr. Blaine. When the applause
ceased, the old man eloquent arose and began his speech :
As a delegate in the Chicago Convention of 1860, the proudest
service of my life was performed by voting for the nomination
of that inspired emancipator, the first Republican President of
the United States. Four-and-twenty years of the grandest
history in recorded times have distinguished the ascendency of
the Republican party. The skies have lowered and reverses have
threatened, but our flag is still there, waving above the mansion
of the Presidency, not a stain on its folds, not a cloud on its
glory. Whether it shall maintain that grand ascendency de=
THE NOMINATION. 263
pends upon the action of this great council. With bated breath
a nation awaits the result. On it are fixed the eyes of twenty
millions of Eepublican freemen in the North. On it, or to it,
rather, are stretched forth the imploring hands of ten millions
of political bondmen of the South, while above, from the portals
of light, is looking down the spirit of the immortal martyr who
first bore it to victory, bidding to us hail and God speed.
Six times, in six campaigns, has that symbol of union, freedom,
humanity, and progress been borne in triumph; sometime by
that silent man of destiny, the Wellington of American arms,
Ulysses the Great ; last by that soldier statesman at whose un-
timely taking off a nation swelled the funeral cries and wept
above great Garfield's grave.
Shall that banner triumph again ? Commit it to the bearing
of that chief [A voice — "James G. Blaine of Maine." Cheers],
commit it to the bearing of that chief, the inspiration . of whose
illustrious character and great name will fire the hearts of our
young men, stir the blood of our manhood, and rekindle the
fervor of the veterans, and the closing of the seventh campaign
will see that holy ensign spanning the sky like a bow of promise.
Political conditions are changed since the accession of the Repub-
lican party to power. The mighty issues of the freed and bleed-
ing humanity which convulsed the continent and rocked the
Republic, rallied, united, and inspired the forces of patriotism
and philanthropy in one consolidated phalanx — these great issues
have ceased their contentions. The subordinate issues resulting
therefrom are settled and buried away with the dead issues of
the past. The arms of the solid South are against us. Not an
Electoral gun can be expected from that section. If triumph
comes, the Republican States of the North must furnish the
conquering battalions. From the farm, the anvil, the loom, from
the mines, the workshop, and the desk, from the hut of the trap-
per on the snowy Sierras, from the hut of the fisherman on the
banks of the Hudson, must these forces be drawn.
Does not sound political wisdom dictate and demand that a
leader shall be given to them whom our people will follow, not
ei§ conscripts advancing by funeral marches to certain defeat, but
264 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
a grand civic hero, whom the souls of the people desire, and
whom they will follow with all the enthusiasm of volunteers as
they sweep on and onward to certain victory— a representative
of American manhood — a representative of that living Eepub-
licanism that demands the amplest industrial protection* and
opportunity whereby labor shall be enabled to earn and eat the
bread of independent employment, relieved of mendicant compe-
tition with pauper Europe or pagan China ?
In this contention of forces for political dominion, to whom as
a candidate shall be intrusted the bearing of our battle flag?
Citizens, I am not here to do it, and may my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth if I do abate one tithe from the just fame,
integrity, and public honor of Chester A. Arthur, our President.
I abate not one tithe from the just fame and public integrity of
George F. Edmunds, of Joseph R. Hawley, of John Sherman,
of that grand, old, black eagle of Illinois [here the speaker was
interrupted several moments by prolonged applause], and I am
proud to know that these distinguished Senators whom I have
named have borne like testimony to the public life, the public
character, and the pubhc integrity of him whose confirmation by
their votes elevated him to the highest office — second in dignity
only to the office of the President himself — the first premiership
in the Administration of James A. Garfield. A man who was
good enough for these great senatorial rivals to confirm in the
high office of the first premiership of the Republic is good enough
for the support of a plain, flesh-and-blood God's people for
President. Who shall be our candidate? [Cries of "Blaine,"
" Arthur," and " Logan." A loud voice yelled above the tumult :
" Give us Black Jack and we will elect him."] Not the repre-
sentative of a particular interest or a particular class. Send the
great apostle to the country labeled the doctors' candidate, the
lawyers' candidate, the Wall street candidate, and the hand of
resurrection would not fathom his November grave.
Gentlemen, he must be a representative of that Republicanism
that demands the absolute political as well as personal emancipa-
tion and disenthrallment of mankind — a representative of that
Republicanism which recognizes the stamp of American citizen-
THE NOMiNATlOlf. 265
ship as the passport of every right, privilege, and consideration
at home or abroad, whether under the sky of Bismarck, under
the palmetto, under the pelican, or on the banks of the Mohawk
— that Republicanism that regards with dissatisfaction a despot-
ism which under the sic semper tyrannis of the Old Dominion
annihilates by slaughter popular majorities in the name of De-
mocracy— a Republicanism whicli, while avoiding entanghng
alliances with foreign powers, will accept insult and humiliation
from no Prince, State, Potentate or Sovereignty on earth — a
Republicanism as embodied and stated in the platform of princi-
ples this day adopted by your Convention. Gentlemen, such a
representative Republican, enthroned in the hearts and affections
of the people, is James G. Blaine, of Maine. His campaign
would commence to-morrow, and continue until victory is as-
sured. There would be no powder burned to fire into the back of
leaders. It would only be exploded to illuminate the inaugu-
ration. The brazen throats of cannon in yonder square, waiting
to herald the result of this Convention, would not have time to
cool before his name would be caught up on ten thousand tongues
of electric flame. It would sweep down from the Old Pine Tree
State. It would go over the hills and valleys of Xew England.
It would insure you Connecticut by 10,000 majority. It would
weld together with fervent heat the dissensions in New York.
It would blaze through the State of Garfield, that daughter of
Connecticut, more beautiful than her mother.
Gentlemen of the Convention, it has been said that in making
this nomination every other consideration should merge, every
other interest be sacrificed, in order and with a view exclu-
sively to secure the Republican vote and carry the State of
New York. Gentlemen, the Republican party demands of this
Convention a nominee whose inspiration and glorious prestige
shall carry the Presidency with or without the State of New
York ; that will carry the Legislatures of the several States and
avert the sacrifice of the United States Senate ; that shall sweep
into the tide suflBcient Congressional districts to redeem the
House of Representatives and restore it to the Republican party.
Gentlemen, three millions of Republicans believe that the man
266 BIOGHAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAIUE.
to accomplish this is the Ajax Telamon of our party, who made
— and whose life is — a conspicuous part of its glorious history.
Through all the conflicts of its progress, from the baptism of
blood on the plains of Kansas to the fall of the immortal Gar-
field, whenever humanity needed succor, or freedom needed* pro-
tection, or country a champion, wherever blows fell thickest and
fastest, there, in the fore front of the battle, was seen to wave the
white plume of James G. Blaine, our Henry of Navarre. Nom-
inate hjm, and the shouts of September victory in Maine will be
re-echoed back by the thunders of the October victory in Ohio.
Nominate him, and the camp-fires and beacon-lights will illu-
minate the continent from the Golden Gate to Cleopatra's
Needle. Nominate him, and the millions who are now in wait-
ing will rally to swell the column of victory that is sweeping on.
In the name of a majority of the delegates from the Republican
States and their glorious constituencies who must fight this
battle, I nominate James G. Blaine, of Maine.
Judge West was frequently interrupted by storms of ap-
plause, which raged with intermittent fury throughout the
Convention. At the close of the speech the cheering was
again renewed. The balloting began on Saturday. The hall
was densely crowded. In spectators and delegates alike ex-
pectancy was wrought to the highest pitch. The weary,
anxious look on many faces told of sleepless nights with much
worry and doubt. The first ballot resulted as follows :
Blaine, 334^ ; Arthur, 278 ; Edmunds, 93 ; Logan, 63i ;
John Sherman, 30 ; Hawley, 13 ; Lincoln, 4 ; W. T. Sher-
man, 2.
On the second ballot Blaine received 349 votes, 375 on the
third, and on the fourth 541 and the nomination ; Arthur,
207; Edmunds, 41, the rest scattering. Mr. Burleigh, on
behalf of President Arthur's friends, moved to make the nomi-
nation unanimous, and not a dissenting voice was heard. The
" supreme moment " of the Convention, which Mr. Curtis has
THE NOMlUATIOil. 267
defined as " that of the sudden and instructive perception of
the multitude that a nomination is about to be made," came
when Senator Cullom announced the withdrawal of Logan,
and transferred the bulk of the vote of Illinois from her fa-
vorite to Blaine. That decided the nomination. Mr. Curtis,
who speaks whereof he saw and heard, reproduces the scene
that followed in words that seem like the answering echo of
memory to the tumult of the Convention.
The decisive instant has arrived. A vote is declared which
carries the whole vote beyond the majority point, and the
nomination is actually made. The shout that greets it is
indescribable. The shout is jubilantly renewed and prolonged.
It rolls and lifts hke the ocean surf in a storm, and culminates
and breaks in a mighty tenth wave of cheers and cries. The
voting proceeds. There is universal change to the side that has
won of the vote that has held out for another candidate. There
is no change of that which has held fast to another cause as well
as candidate. That vote holds fast to the end. The formal an-
nouncement of the nomination is made. The formal motion of
unanimity is declared adopted amid universal uproar. The
thunder of cannon shakes the great building in Chicago. The
electric wire at the same moment whispers the nomination to
Katahdin and the Golden Gate and all the continent between,
and the twenty-second Presidential campaign has begun.
On Tuesday of the Convention week Mr. Blaine had gone
to his home in Augusta, Maine, where any visitor might have
found him quietly at work in his library, on the second volume
of " Twenty Years of Congress." He received the bulletins
from Chicago seated on his lawn and surrounded by his family.
He read the dispatches in his usual distinct and careful way,
and exhibited no further signs of anxiety or excitement than
occasionally walking up and down the lawn. When the news
of the nomination was received he maintained his quiet de-
meanor, showing only by a deeper glow and a prouder look in
26S SlOGilAPHY of HON. JAMES C^. BlAINE.
his big lustrous eyes that the mantle of a great honor had
touched his shoulders. He said he felt all the more gratified
at the result because the nomination had come unsolicited.
He had not lifted a finger to secure it. He owed it all to the
devoted men who for so many years had loyally stood by
him.
He had received over 7,000 letters asking him to be a candi-
date, but had not answered one.
His friends and neighbors soon crowded about him to
extend their congratulations. The telegraph wires were
burdened with messages of good-will. The first came from
President Arthur. In any other man the generosity and
promptness of the pledge might have excited surprise; in
Chester A. Arthur it was only natural.
To the Ron. James G. Blaine, Augusta, Me. :
As the candidate of the Eepubhcan party, you will have my
earnest and cordial support.
Chester A. Abthur.
Another brought the benediction of a bereaved home, and
there came with it a voice from beyond the grave.
Cleveland, O., June 7.
To Hon. James G. Blaine:
Our household joins in one great thanksgiving. From the
quiet of our home we send our most earnest wish that through
the turbulent months to follow, and in the day of victory, you
may be guarded and kept.
LucRETiA E. Garfield.
In Augusta the good news was hailed with great rejoicing
by the fellow-citizens of the honored candidate. Bells were
rung and cannon fired. Far into the night the streets were
thronged with people filling the air with their lusty cheers for
the " Man from Maine."
THE NOMINATION. 269
On Water street a flag was unfurled inscribed with these
words, " Our next President, James G. Blaine." Early in the
evening a crowd gathered about Mr. Blaine's house, and in
response to the cheering he appeared at the door and briefly
addressed them :
My Fkibnds and my Neighbors: I thank you most sin-
cerely for the honor of this call. There is no spot in the world
where good news comes to me so gratefully as here at my own
home ; among the people with whom I have been on terms of
friendship and intimacy for more than thirty years, people whom
I know and who know me. Thanking you again for the hearti-
ness of the compliment, I bid you good-night.
The committee appointed to inform Mr. Blaine of his nom-
ination performed that duty at Augusta, June 21. The
ceremony took place on the lawn near the house. Kepre-
sentatives of every State and TeiTitory were there. Mr.
Henderson, as chairman of the Committee and on behalf of
the Convention, in a few well-chosen words formally tendered
to Mr. Blaine the nomination of the Kepublican party for the
Presidency of the United States. During the address of the
chairman Mr. Blaine stood with folded arms, the central figure
of a brilliant and picturesque group. And then with a be-
coming recognition of the present honor and the responsibility
which was its price, and with a hopeful look into the face of
the future, which seemed in the stillness of that perfect June
day to whisper back a glad ** Hail and Welcome," he briefly
responded, accepting the nomination :
Me. Chairman and Gentlemen of the National Commit-
tee : I receive not without deep sensibility your official notice of
the action of the National Convention already brought to my
knowledge through the public press. I appreciate more pro-
foundly than I can express the honor which is implied in a
nomination for the Presidency by the Kepublican party of the
270 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
nation — speaking through the authoritative voice of duly ac-
credited delegates. To be selected as a candidate by such an
assemblage from the list of eminent statesmen whose names were
presented, fills me with embarrassment. I can only express my
gratitude for so signal an honor, and my earnest desire to prove
worthy of the great trust reposed in me.
In accepting the nomination, as I now do, I am impressed, I
might almost say oppressed, with a sense of the labor and respon-
sibility which attach to my position. The burden is lightened,
however, by the hosts of earnest men who support my candidacy,
many of whom add — as does your honorable committee — the
cheer of personal friendship to the pledge of political fealty.
A more formal acceptance will naturally be expected, and will
in due season be communicated. It may, however, not be inap-
propriate at this time to say that I have already made careful
study of the principles announced by the National Convention,
and that in the whole and in detail they have my heartiest
sympathy, and meet my unqualified approval.
Apart from your official errand, gentlemen, I am extremely
happy to welcome you all to my home. With many of you I
have already shared the duties of the pubKc service, and have
enjoyed the most cordial friendship. I trust your journey from
all parts of the great Kepublic has been agreeable, and that during
your stay in Maine you will feel that you are not among strangers,
but with friends. Invoking the blessing of God upon the great
cause which we jointly represent, let us turn to the future with-
out fear and with manly hearts.
Mr. Blaine concluding, Chairman Henderson took a step
forward and said : " To one and all of you I introduce the next
President of the United States."
We may most fitly conclude this chapter with the platform
adopted by the Convention on which Mr. Blaine takes his
stand. It is a clear, emphatic statement of the principles
which the Eepublican party adopts as the reason for its
existence • it promises tariff reform by methods which will
THE NOMINATION. 271
•
protect the productive interests of the country, advocates the
creation of a navy, and insists on a free ballot and honest
returns :
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
The Repubhcans of the United States in National Convention
assembled renew their aUegiance to the principles upon which
they have triumphed in six successive Presidential elections, and
congratulate the American people on the attainment of so many
results in legislation and administration, by which the Eepub-
lican party has, after saving the Union, done so much to render
its institutions just, equal, and beneficent — the safeguard of lib-
erty, and the embodiment of the best thought and highest pur-
poses of our citizens. The Eepublican party has gained its
strength by quick and faithful response to the demands of the
people for the freedom and the equality of all men ; for a united
nation, assuring the rights of all citizens ; for the elevation of
labor ; for an honest currency ; for purity in legislation, and for
integrity and accountabihty in all departments of the Govern-
ment ; and it accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of
progress and reform.
We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound
statesmanship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of a
strong and successful Administration — a promise fully realized
during the short period of his office as President of the United
States. His distinguished success in war and in peace has
endeared him to the hearts of the American people.
In the Administration of President Arthur we recognize a
wise, conservative and patriotic policy, under which the country
has been blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe his
eminent services are entitled to and will receive the hearty ap-
proval of every citizen.
It is the first duty of a good government to protect the rights
and promote the interests of its own people. The largest
diversity of industry is most productive of general prosperity
and of the comfort and independence of the people. We there-
fore demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports
272 BIOGBAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
shall be made, not for revenue only, but that in raising the requi-
site revenues for the government such duties shall be so levied
as to afford security to our diversified industries, and protection
to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and
intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just reward,
and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity.
Against the so-called economic system of the Democratic
party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard,
we enter our earnest protest. The Democratic party has failed
completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary
taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus.
The Eepublican party pledges itself to correct the inequalities
of the tariff, and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and
indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by such
methods as will relieve the taxpayer without injuring the laborer
or the great productive interests of the country.
We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the United
States, the serious depression which it is now experiencing, and
the danger threatening its future prosperity ; and we therefore
respect the demands of the representatives of this important agri-
cultural interest for a readjustment of duty upon foreign wool in
order that such industry shall have full and adequate protection.
We have always recommended the best money known to the
civilized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite all
commercial nations in the establishment of an international
standard which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and
silver coinage.
The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and between
the States is one of the most important prerogatives of the Gen-
eral Government, and the Republican party distinctly announces
its purpose to support such legislation as will fully and eflS-
ciently carry out the constitutional power of Congress over
inter-State commerce.
The principle of the public regulation of railway corporations
is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all classes of the
people, and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust dis-
crimination and excessive charges for transportation, and that
THE NOMINATION. 273
shall secure to the people and to the railways alike the fair and
equal protection of the laws.
We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor, the
enforcement of the eight-hour law, and a wise and judicious sys-
tem of general education by adequate appropriation from the
national revenues wherever the same is needed. We believe that
everywhere the protection to a citizen of American birth must be
secured to citizens of American adoption, and we favor the set-
tlement of national differences by international arbitration.
The Eepublican party, having its birth in a hatred of slave
labor and a desire that all men may be free and equal, is unalter-
ably opposed to placing our workingmen in competition with any
form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In this spirit
we denounce the importation of contract labor, whether from
Europe or Asia, as an offense against the spirit of American in-
stitutions, and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law re-
stricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legis-
lation as is necessary to carry out its purposes.
The reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Ee-
publican administration, should be completed by the further ex-
tension of the reformed system, already established by law, to all
the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit
and purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive
appointments, and all laws at variance with the objects of exist-
ing reformed legislation should be repealed, to the end that the
danger to free institutions which lurks in the power of oflBcial
patronage may be wisely and effectively avoided.
The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United
States, and should be reserved, as far as possible, for small hold-
ings by actual settlers. We are opposed to the acquisition of
large tracts of these lands by corporations or individuals, espe-
cially where such holdings are in the hands of non-resident aliens,
and we will endeavor to obtain such legislation as will tend to
correct this evil. We demand of Congress the speedy forfeiture
of all land grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance
with acts of incorporation, in all cases where there has been no
attempt, in good faith, to perform the conditions of such grants,
274 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. |
The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the
Union soldiers and sailors of the late war, and the Republican
party stands pledged to suitable pensions for all who were dis-
abled and for the widows and orphans of those who died in the
war. The Republican party also pledges itself to the repeal of
the limitation contained in the Arrears Act of 1879, so that all
invalid soldiers shall share alike, and their pensions shall begin
with the date of disability or discharge, and not with the date of
their application.
The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us from
entangling alliances with foreign nations, and which shall give
the right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain from med-
dling in American affairs — the policy which seeks peace and can
trade with all powers, but especially with those of the Western
Hemisphere.
We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time strength
and efficiency, that it may, in any sea, protect the rights of
American citizens and the interests of American commerce, and
we call upon Congress to remove the burdens under which Ameri-
can shipping has been depressed, so that it may again be true
that we have a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored and a
navy which takes no law from superior force.
Resolved, That appointments by the President to offices in the
Territories should be made from the hona fide citizens and resi-
dents of the Territories wherein they are to serve.
Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws
as shall promptly and effectually suppress the system of po-
lygamy within our territory, and divorce the political from the
ecclesiastical power of the so-called Mormon Church, and that
the law so enacted should be rigidly enforced by the civil authori-
ties if possible, and by the military if need be.
The people of the United States, in their organized capacity,
constitute a nation, and not a mere confederacy of States. The
National Government is supreme within the sphere of its national
duty, but the States have reserved rights which should be faith-
fully maintained ; each should be guarded with jealous care, so
that the harmony of our system of government may be preserved
THE NOMINATION. 275
and the Union be kept inviolate. The perpetuity of our institu-
tions rests upon the maintenance of a free ballot, an honest count,
and correct returns.
We denounce the fraud and violence practiced by the Democ-
racy in Southern States, by which the will of the voter is defeated,
as dangerous to the preservation of free institutions, and we
solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the guilty recipi-
ent of the fruits of such fraud and violence. We extend to the
Kepublicans of the South, regardless of their former party affilia-
tions, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our utmost
earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will
secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and
complete recognition, possession, and exercise of all civil and po-
litical rights.
CHAPTEE XIII.
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.
The Independent Republicans. — Blaine's views. — His clear statements. — The
Tariff question. — Prosperity of the country. — Our foreign commerce. —
Agriculture and the Tariff. — Effect on the mechanic and laborer. — Our
foreign policy. — The Southern States. — The civil service. — The Mormon
question. — The currency. — The public lands. — Our shipping interests. —
Sacredness of the ballot.
THE history of a day cannot be written until tlie day is
done. The revolt against Mr. Blaine in certain quarters
is not to be laughed down. It is a hard fact to be squarely
faced. The prophet's staff has disappeared from our closet,
and we cannot, as some profess, tell exactly what the issue of
all this political confusion will be. There are as many
ingredients in it as went into the witch's caldron, and no
doubt the " charm " will prove as good. American days have
a fashion of closing in glory. The New York Times and the
New York Evening Post having committed themselves against
Mr. Blaine before the Convention, are only fulfilling their
threats in opposing his election.
Other journals, notably Harpers' Weekly, have gone and
done likewise. Boston also contributes a few drops of blue
blood to the revolt. The cloud is a little larger than a man's
hand, but small clouds are uncertain; most of them float un-
noticed athwart the sky, a few scare children and nurses, a
very few are the forerunners of a tempest. November blasts
are cold, but who knows which way the wind will blow ?
Mr. ]51aine's letter of acceptance is a clear and powerful
THE LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE. 277
statement of his views on questions of public policy. There
is no mistaking his position on any of the issues with which
he deals. Men may quarrel with him for his opinions, hut
they certainly cannot lay to his charge the faults of indefinite
expression, or of an attempt to imitate those acrobatic writers
who, by dint of turning somersaults in the air, strive to con-
ceal the shamble in their gait. The part of the letter which
deals with the Tariff will be found of particular interest to
free traders and protectionists alike — to the former for the
facts it contains ; to the latter for the conclusions it draws.
It has been quite the fashion in some quarters to think of Mr.
Blaine and to describe him as a sort of Indian brave, with all
his war-paint and feathers on, whose chief end in life was to
secure the scalps of that inoffensive but somewhat portly gen-
tleman known to fame as Mr. John Bull ; another caricature
represents Mr. Blaine as a sort of kangaroo politician,
who carefully provides a soft nest for a whole family of
hangers-on and henchmen, and scoffs at the idea of reform.
People who have met with either of these amusing but purely
imaginative pictures will find much profitable matter in what
is said in his letter about foreign relations and civil service
reform. We print the entire letter, both for its intrinsic
merits and because it is the latest authoritative statement of
Mr. Blaine's opinions on questions of absorbing national
interest.
Augusta, Me., July 15, 1884.
The Hon. John B. Henderson and others of the Committee,
etc. , etc. :
Gentlemen: In accepting the nomination for the Presidency
tendered me by the Kepublican National Convention, I beg to
express a deep sense of the honor which is conferred and of the
duty which is imposed. I venture to accompany the acceptance
with some observations upon the questions involved in the con-
278 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
test — questions whose settlement may affect the future of the
nation favorably or unfavorably for a long series of years.
In enumerating the issues upon which the Republican party
appeals for popular support, the Convention has been singularly
explicit and felicitous. It has properly given the leading position
to the industrial interests of the country as affected by the tariff
on imports. On that question the two political parties are
radically in conflict. Almost the first act of the Eepublicans
when they came into power in 1861, was the establishment of
the principle of protection to American labor and to American
capital. This principle the Republican party has ever since
steadily maintained, while, on the other hand, the Democratic
party in Congress has for fifty years persistently warred upon it.
Twice within that period our opponents have destroyed tariffs
arranged for protection, and since the close of the civil war,
whenever they have controlled the House of Representatives,
hostile legislation has been attempted — never more conspicuously
than in their principal measure at the late session of Congress.
THE TARIFF QUESTION.
Revenue laws are in their very nature subject to frequent re-
vision in order that they may be adapted to changes and modifi-
cations of trade. The Republican party is not contending for
the permanency of any particular statute. The issue between
the two parties does not have reference to a specific law. It is
far broader and far deeper. It involves a principle of wide appli-
cation and beneficent infiuence against a theory which we believe
to be unsound in conception and inevitably hurtful in practice.
In the many tariff revisions which have been necessary for the
past twenty-three years, or which may hereafter become neces-
sary, the Republican party has maintained and will maintain the
policy of protection to American industry, while our opponents
insist upon a revision which practically destroys that policy. The
issue is thus distinct, well defined and unavoidable. The pending
election may determine the fate of protection for a generation.
The overthrow of the policy means a large and permanent reduc-
tion in the wages of the American laborer, besides involving the
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 279
loss of vast amounts of American capital invested in manufactur-
ing enterprises. The value of the present revenue system to the
people of the United States is not a matter of theory, and I shall
submit no argument to sustain it. I only invite attention to
certain facts of official record which seem to constitute a demon-
stration.
In the census of 1850 an effort was made, for the first time in
our history, to obtain a valuation of all the property in the United
States. The attempt was in large degree unsuccessful. Partly
from lack of time, partly from prejudice among many who thought
the inquiries foreshadowed a new scheme of taxation, the returns
were incomplete and unsatisfactory. Little more was done than
to consolidate the local valuation used in the States for the pur-
poses of assessment, and that, as every one knows, differs widely
from a complete exhibit of all the property.
In the census of 1860, however, the work was done with great
thoroughness — the distinction between "assessed'* value and
"true" value been carefully observed. The grand result was
that the " true value " of all the property in the States and Ter-
ritories (excluding slaves) amounted to fourteen thousand millions
of dollars (114,000,000,000). The aggregate was the net result
of the labor and the savings of all the people within the area of
the United States from the time the first British colonist landed
in 1607 down to the year 1860. It represented the fruit of the
toil of 250 years.
After 1860 the business of the country was encouraged and de-
veloped by a protective tariff. At the end of twenty years the
total property of the United States, as returned by the census of
1880, amounted to the enormous aggregate of forty-four thousand
millions of dollars ($44,000,000,000). This great result was at-
tained, notwithstanding the fact that countless millions had in
the interval been wasted in the progress of a bloody war. It thus
appears that, while our population between 1860 and 1880 in-
creased 60 per cent., the aggregate property of the country in-
creased 214 per cent., showing a vastly enhanced wealth per
capita among the people. Thirty thousand millions of dollars
(130,000,000,000) had been added during these twenty years to
the permanent wealth of the nation.
280 BlOGEAPHt OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
These results are regarded by the older nations of the world as
phenomenal. That our country should surmount the peril and
the cost of a gigantic war, and for an entire period of twenty
years make an average gain to its wealth of one hundred and
twenty-five million dollars per month, surpasses the experience
of all other nations, ancient or modern. Even the opponents of
the present revenue system do not pretend that in the whole his-
tory of civilization any parallel can be found to the material
progress of the United States since the accession of the Kepubli-
can party to power.
The period between 1860 and to-day has not been one of mate-
rial prosperity only. At no time in the history of the United
States has there been such progress in the moral and philan-
thropic field. Eeligious and charitable institutions, schools,
seminaries, and colleges have been founded and endowed far more
generously than at any previous time in our history. Greater
and more varied relief has been extended to human suffering, and
the entire progress of the country in wealth has been accompanied
and dignified by a broadening and elevation of our national char-
acter as a people.
Our opponents find fault that our revenue system produces a
surplus. But they should not forget that the law has given a
specific purpose to which all of the surplus is profitably and hon-
orably applied — the reduction of the public debt, and the conse-
quent relief of the burden of taxation. No dollar has been
wasted, and the only extravagance with which the party stands
charged is the generous pensioning of soldiers, sailors, and their
families — an extravagance which embodies the highest form of
justice in the recognition and payment of a sacred debt. When
reduction of taxation is to be made, the Eepublican party can be
trusted to accomplish it in such a form as will most effectively
aid the industries of the nation.
CUE FOREIGN COMMERCE.
A frequent accusation by our opponents is, that the foreign
commerce of the country has steadily decayed under the influence
of the protective tariff. In this way they seek to array the im-
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 281
porting interest against the Kepnblican party. It is a common
and yet radical error to confound the commerce of the country
with its carrying trade — an error often committed innocently and
sometimes designedly — ^but an error so gross that it does not dis-
tinguish between the ship and the cargo. Foreign commerce
represents the exports and imports of a country, regardless of the
nationality of the vessel that may carry the commodities of ex-
change. Our carrying trade has, from obvious causes, suffered
many discouragements since 1860, but our foreign commerce has
in the same period steadily and prodigiously increased — increased,
indeed, at a rate and to an amount which absolutely dwarf all
previous developments of our trade beyond the sea. From 18,60
to the present time, the foreign commerce of the United States
(divided with approximate equality between exports and imports)
reached the astounding aggregate of twenty-four thousand mil-
lions of dollars ($24,000,000,000). The balance in this vast com-
merce inclined in our favor, but it would have been much larger
if our trade with the countries of America, elsewhere referred to,
had been more wisely adjusted.
It is difficult even to appreciate the magnitude of our export
trade since 1860, and we can gain a correct conception of it only
by comparison with preceding results in the same field. The
total exports from the United States from the Declaration of Inde-
pendence in 1776, down to the day of Lincoln's election in 1860,
added to all that had previously been exported from the Ameri-
can Colonies from their original settlement, amounted to less
than nine thousand milHons of dollars ($9,000,000,000). On the
other hand, our exports from 1860 to the close of the last fiscal year
exceeded twelve thousand millions of dollars ($13,000,000,000),
the whole of it being the product of American labor. Evidently
a protective tariff has not injured our export trade when, under
its influence, we exported in twenty-four years forty per cent,
more than the total amount that had been exported in the entire
previous history of American commerce. All the details, when
analyzed, correspond with this gigantic result. The commercial
cities of the Union never had such growth as they have enjoyed
since 1860. Our chief emporium, the city of New York, with
282 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
its dependencies, has within that period doubled her population
and increased her wealth five-fold. During the same period the
imports and exports which have entered and left her harbor are
•more than double in bulk and value the whole amount imported
and exported by her between the settlement of the first Dutch
colony on the island of Manhattan and the outbreak of the civil
war in 1860.
AGEICTJLTURE AND THE TARIPF.
The agricultural interest is by far the largest in the nation,
and is entitled in every adjustment of revenue laws to the first
consideration. Any policy hostile to the fullest development of
agriculture in the United States must be abandoned. Kealizing
this fact, the opponents of the present system of revenue have
labored very earnestly to persuade the farmers of the United
States that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the effort
is thus made to consolidate their vast influence in favor of free
trade. But happily the farmers of America are intelligent, and
cannot be misled by sophistry when conclusive facts are before
them. They see plainly that during the past twenty-four years
wealth has not been acquired in one section or by one interest at
the expense of another section or another interest. They see
that the agricultural States have made even more rapid progress
than the manufacturing States.
The farmers see that in 1860 Massachusetts and- Illinois had
about the same wealth — between eight and nine hundred miUion
dollars each — and that in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to
twenty-six hundred millions, while Illinois had advanced to
thirty-two hundred millions. They see that New Jersey and
Iowa were just equal in population in 1860, and that in twenty
years the wealth of New Jersey was increased by the sum of eight
hundred and fifty millions of dollars, while the wealth of Iowa
was increased by the sum of fifteen hundred milHons. They see
that the nine leading agricultural States of the West have grown
so rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate addition to their
wealth since 1860 is almost as great as the wealth of the entire
country in that year. They see that the South, which is almost
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 283
exclusively agricultural, has shared in the general prosperity, and
that, having recovered from the loss and devastation of war, has
gained so rapidly that its total wealth is at least the double of
that which it possessed in 1860, exclusive of slaves.
In these extraordinary developments the farmers see the hope-
ful impulse of a home market, and they see that the financial
and revenue system, enacted since the Eepublican party came
into power, has established and constantly expanded the home
market. They see that even in the case of wheat, which is our
chief cereal export, they have sold, in the average of the years
since the close of the war, three bushels at home to one they have
sold abroad, and that in the case of corn, the only other cereal
which we export to any extent, one hundred bushels have been
used at home to three and a half bushels exported. In some
years the disparity has been so great that for every peck of corn
exported one hundred bushels have been consumed in the home
market. The farmers see that in the increasing competition
from the grain fields of Russia, and from the distant plains of
India, the growth of the home market becomes daily of greater
concern to them, and that its impairment would depreciate the
value of every acre of tillable land in the Union.
Such facts as these touching the growth and consumption of
cereals at home give us some slight conception of the vastness of
the internal commerce of the United States. They suggest
also, that in addition to the advantages which the American
people enjoy from protection against foreign competition, they
enjoy the advantages of absolute free trade over a larger area
and with a greater population than any other nation. The
internal commerce of our thirty-eight States and nine Territories
is carried on without let or hindrance, without tax, detention, or
governmental interference of any kind whatever. It spreads
freely over an area of three and a half million square miles —
almost equal in extent to the whole continent of Europe. Its
profits are enjoyed to-day by fifty-six millions of American free-
men, and from this enjoyment no monopoly is created. Accord-
ing to Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the same subject
in 1790, " the internal competition which takes place does away
284 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
with everything like monopoly, and by degrees reduces the prices
of articles to the minimum of a reasonable profit on the capital
employed." It is impossible to point to a single monopoly in
the United States that has been created or fostered by the indus-
trial system which is upheld by the Eepublican party.
Compared with our foreign commerce these domestic exchanges
are inconceivably great in amount — requiring merely as one in-
strumentality as large a mileage of railway as exists to-day in all
the other nations of the world combined. These internal ex-
changes are estimated by the statistical bureau of the Treasury
Department to be annually twenty times as great in amount as
our foreign commerce. It is into this vast field of home trade —
at once the creation and the heritage of the American people —
that foreign nations are striving by every device to enter. It is
into this field that the opponents of our present revenue system
would freely admit the countries of Europe — countries into
whose internal trade we could not reciprocally enter ; countries
to which we should be surrendering every advantage of trade ;
from which we should be gaining nothing in return.
EFFECT UPON" THE MECHANIC AND THE LABOREE.
A policy of this kind would be disastrous to the mechanics
and workingmen of the United States. Wages are unjustly
reduced when an industrious man is not able by his earnings to
live in comfort, educate his children, and lay by a sufficient
amount for the necessities of age. The reduction of wages in-
evitably consequent upon throwing our home market open
to the world, would deprive them of the power to do this. It
would prove a great calamity to our country. It would produce
a conflict between the poor and the rich, and in the sorrowful
degradation of labor would plant the seeds of public danger.
The Eepublican party has steadily aimed to maintain just
relations between labor and capital — guarding with care the
rights of each. A conflict between the two has always led in the
past, and will always lead in the future, to the injury of both.
Labor is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of
capital, and capital increases the efficiency and value of labor.
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 285
Whoever arrays the one against the other is an enemy of both.
That policy is wisest and best which harmonizes the two on the
basis of absolute justice. The Kepublican party has protected
the free labor of America so that its compensation is larger than
is realized in any other country. It has guarded our people
against the unfair competition of contract labor from China, and
may be called upon to prohibit the growth of a similar evil from
Europe. It is obviously unfair to permit capitalists to make
contracts for cheap labor in foreign countries, to the hurt and
disparagement of the labor of American citizens. Such a policy
(like that which would leave the time and other conditions of
home labor exclusively in the control of the employer) is
injurious to all parties — not the least so to the unhappy persons
who are made the subjects of the contracts. The institutions of
the United States rest upon the intelligence and virtue of all
the people. Suffrage is made universal as a just weapon of self-
protection to every citizen. It is not the interest of the republic
that any economic system should be adopted which involves the
reduction of wages to the hard standard prevailing elsewhere.
The Eepublican party aims to elevate and dignify labor — not to
degrade it.
As a substitute for the industrial system which, under Eepub-
lican administrations, has developed such extraordinary pros-
perity, our opponents offer a policy which is but a series of
experiments upon our system of revenue — a policy whose end
must be harm to our manufactures and greater harm to our
labor. Experiment in the industrial and financial system is the
country's greatest dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even
the uncertainty resulting from the recent tariff agitation in
Congress has hurtfully affected the business of the entire coun-
try. Who can measure the harm to our shops and our homes, to
our farms and our commerce, if the uncertainty of perpetual
tariff agitation is to be inflicted upon the country ? We are
in the midst of an abundant harvest ; we are on the eve of a
revival of general prosperity. Nothing stands in our way but
the dread of a change in the industrial system which has wrought
such wonders in the last twenty years, and which, with the
286 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
power of increased capital, will work still greater marvels of
prosperity in the twenty years to come.
OUR FOREIGN- POLICY.
Our foreign relations favor our domestic development. We
are at peace with the world — at peace upon a sound basis,
with no unsettled questions of sufficient magnitude to embar-
rass or distract us. Happily removed by our geographical
position from participation or interest in those questions
of dynasty or boundary which so frequently disturb the peace
of Europe, we are left to cultivate friendly relations with
all, and are free from possible entanglements in the quarrels
of any. The United States has no cause and no desire to engage
in conflict with any power on earth, and we may rest in assured
confidence that no power desires to attack the "United States.
With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we should culti-
vate closer relations, and for our common prosperity and ad-
vancement we should invite them all to join with us in an
agreement that for the future all international troubles in North
or South America shall be adjusted by impartial arbitration, and
not by arms. This project was part of the fixed policy of Presi-
dent Garfield's Administration, and it should, in my judgment,
be renewed. Its accomplishment on this continent would favor-
ably affect the nations beyond the sea, and thus powerfully con-
tribute, at no distant day, to the universal acceptance of the
philanthropic and Christian principle of arbitration. The effect
even of suggesting it for the Spanish American States has been
most happy, and has increased the confidence of those people in
our friendly disposition. It fell to my lot, as Secretary of State,
in June, 1881, to quiet apprehension in the Republic of Mexico
by giving the assurance in an official dispatch that ** there is
not the faintest desire in the United States for territorial exten-
sion south of the Rio Grande. The boundaries of the two Re-
publics have been established in conformity with the best juris-
dictional interests of both. The line of demarkation is not
merely conventional. It is more. It separates a Spanish-
American people from a Saxon-American people. It divides
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 287
one great nation from another with distinct and natural
finality."
We seek the conquests of peace. We desire to extend our
commerce, and in an especial degree with our friends and neigh-
bors on this continent. We have not improved our relations
with Spanish America as wisely and as persistently as we might
have done. For more than a generation the sympathy of those
countries has been allowed to drift away from us. We should
now make every effort to gain their friendship. Our trade with
them is already large. During the last year our exchanges in
the Western Hemisphere amounted to three hundred and fifty
millions of dollars — nearly one-fourth of our entire foreign com-
merce. To those who may be disposed to underrate the value
of our trade with the countries of North and South America, it
may be well to state that their population is nearly or quite fifty
millions — and that, in proportion to aggregate numbers, we im-
port nearly double as much from them as we do from Europe.
But the result of the whole American trade is in a high degree
unsatisfactory. The imports during the past year exceeded
$325,000,000, while the exports were less than 1125,000,000—
shoAving a balance against us of more than 1100,000,000. But
the money does not go to Spanish America. We send large
sums to Europe in coin, or its equivalent, to pay European
manufacturers for the goods which they send to Spanish America.
We are but paymasters for this enormous amount annually to
European factors — an amount which is a serious draft, in every
financial depression, upon our resources of specie.
Cannot this condition of trade in great part be changed ?
Cannot the market for our products be greatly enlarged ? We
have made a beginning in our effort to improve our trade relations
with Mexico, and we should not be content until similar and
mutually advantageous arrangements have been successfully
made with every nation of North and South America. While
the great powers of Europe are steadily enlarging their colonial
domination in Asia and Africa, it is the especial province of this
country to improve and expand its trade with the nations of
America. No field promises so much. No field has beeji culti-
288 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
vated so little. Our foreign policy should be an American policy
in its broadest and most comprehensive sense — a policy of peace,
of friendship, of commercial enlargement.
The name of American, which belongs to us in our national
capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism. Citizen-
ship of the republic must be the panoply and safeguard of him
who wears it. The American citizen, rich or poor, native or
naturalized, white or colored, must everywhere walk secure in
his personal and civil rights. The republic should never accept
a lesser duty, it can never assume a nobler one, than the protec-
tion of the humblest man who owes it loyalty — protection at
home and protection which shall follow him abroad, into what-
ever land he may go upon a lawful errand.
THE SOUTHERN STATES.
I recognize, not without regret, the necessity for speaking of
two sections of our common country. But the regret diminishes
when I see that the elements which separated them are fast dis-
appearing. Prejudices have yielded and are yielding, while a
growing cordiality warms the Southern and the Northern heart
alike. Can any one doubt that between the sections confidence
and esteem are to-day more marked than at any period in the
sixty years preceding the election of President Lincoln ? This
is the result in part of time and in part of Eepublican principles
applied under the favorable conditions of uniformity. It would
be a great calamity to change these influences under which
Southern Commonwealths are learning to vindicate civil rights,
and adapting themselves to the conditions of political tranquilhty
and industrial progress. If there be occasional and violent out-
breaks in the South against this peaceful progress, the public
opinion of the country regards them as exceptional, and hope-
fully trusts that each will prove the last.
The South needs capital and occupation, not controversy. As
much as any part of the North the South needs the full protec-
tion of the revenue laws which the Eepublican party offers. Some
of the Southern States have already entered upon a career of in-
dustrial development and prosperity. These, at least, should not
lend their electoral votes to destroy their own future.
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 289
Any effort to unite the Southern States upon issues that grow
out of the memories of the war will summon the Northern States
to combine in the assertion of that nationality which was their
inspiration in the civil struggle. And thus great energies which
should be united in a common industrial development will be
wasted in hurtful strife. The Democratic party shows itself a
foe to Southern prosperity by always invoking and urging
Southern political consolidation. Such a policy quenches the
rising instinct of patriotism in the heart of the Southern youth ;
it revives and stimulates prejudice; it substitutes the spirit of
barbaric vengeance for the love of peace, progress and harmony.
THE CIVIL SERVICE.
The general character of the civil service of the United States
under all administrations has been honorable. In the one supreme
test — the collection and disbursement of revenue — the record of
fidelity has never been surpassed in any nation. With the almost
fabulous sums which were received and paid during tne late war,
scrupulous integrity was the prevailing rule. Indeed, throughout
that trying period, it can be said to the honor of the American
name that unfaithfulness and dishonesty among civil officers
were as rare as misconduct and cowardice on the field of
battle.
The growth of the country has continually and necessarily en-
larged the civil service, until now it includes a vast body of
officers. Rules and methods of appointment which prevailed
when the number was smaller have been found insufficient and
impracticable, and earnest efforts have been made to separate the
great mass of ministerial officers from partisan influence and
personal control. Impartiality in the mode of appointment to be
based on qualification, and security of tenure to be based on
faithful discharge of duty, are the two ends to be accomplished.
The public business will be aided by separating the legislative
branch of the Government from all control of appointments, and
the Executive Department will be relieved by subjecting appoint-
ments to fixed rules and thus removing them from the caprice
of favoritism. But there should be rigid observance of the law
290 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. 6LAINE.
which gives in all cases of equal competency the preference to
the soldiers who risked their lives in defense of the Union.
I entered Congress in 1863, and in a somewhat prolonged ser-
vice I never found it expedient to request or recommend the re-
moval of a civil ofBcer except in four instances, and then for
non-political reasons which were instantly conclusive with the
appointing power. The oflBcers in the district, appointed by
Mr. Lincoln in 1861, upon the recommendation of my predeces-
sor, served, as a rule, until death or resignation. I adopted at
the beginning of my service the test of competitive examination
for appointments to West Point, and maintained it so long as I
had the right by law to nominate a cadet. In the case of many
officers I found that the present law which arbitrarily limits the
term of the commission offered a constant temptation to changes
for mere political reasons. I have publicly expressed the belief
that the essential modification of that law would be in many re-
spects advantageous.
My observation in the Department of State confirmed the con-
clusions of my legislative experience, and impressed me with the
conviction that the rule of impartial appointment might with
advantage be carried beyond any existing provision of the civil
service law. It should be applied to appointments in the con-
sular service. Consuls should be commercial sentinels — en-
circling the globe with watchfulness for their country's interests.
Their intelligence and competency become, therefore, matters of
great public concern, No man should be appointed to an Ameri-
can consulate who is not well instructed in the history and re-
sources of his own country, and in the requirements and language
of commerce in the country to which he is sent. The same rule
should be applied even more rigidly to secretaries of legation in
our diplomatic service. The people have the right to the most
efficient agents in the discharge of public business, and the ap-
pointing power should regard this as the prior and ulterior con-
sideration.
THE MORMQ-N- QUESTION.
Eeligious liberty is the right of every citizen of the Eepnblic.
Congress is forbidden by the Constitution to make any law " re-
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 291
specting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof." For a century, under this guarantee, Protest-
ant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, have worshiped God according
to the dictates of conscience. But religious liberty must not be
perverted to the justification of offenses against the law. A
religious sect, strongly entrenched in one of the Territories
of the Union, and spreading rapidly into four other Territories,
claims the right to destroy the great safeguard and muniment
of social order, and to practice as a religious privilege that
which is a crime punished with severe penalty in every State of
the Union. The sacredness and unity of the family must be
preserved as the foundation of all civil government, as the source
of orderly administration, as the surest guarantee of moral
purity.
The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely authorized
to practice polygamy should no more be admitted than the claim
of certain heathen tribes, if they should come among us, to con-
tinue the rite of human sacrifice. The law does not interfere with
what a man believes ; it takes cognizance only of what he does.
As citizens, the Mormons are entitled to the same civil rights as
others, and to these they must be confined. Polygamy can never
receive national sanction or toleration by admitting the com-
munity that upholds it as a State in the Union. Like others the
Mormons must learn that the liberty of the individual ceases
where the rights of society begin.
OUR CURRENCY.
The people of the United States, though often urged and
tempted, have never seriously contemplated the recognition of
any other money than gold and silver — and currency directly
convertible into them. They have not done so, they will not do
so, under any necessity less pressing than that of desperate war.
The one special requisite for the completion of our monetary
system is the fixing of the relative values of silver and gold. The
large use of silver as the money of account among the Asiatic
nations, taken in connection, with the increasing commerce of
the world, gives the weightiest reasons for an international
agreement in the premises. Our Government should not cease
292 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
to urge this measure until a common standard of value shall be
reached and established — a standard that shall enable the TTnited
States to use the silver from its mines as an auxiliary to gold in
settling the balances of commercial exchange.
THE PUBLIC LANDS.
The strength of the Eepublic is increased by the multiplication
of landholders. Our laws should look to the judicious encourage-
ment of actual settlers on the public domain, which should
henceforth be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of those seek-
ing homes. The tendency to consolidate large tracts of land in
the ownership of individuals or corporations should, with proper
regard for vested rights, be discouraged. One hundred thousand
acres of land in the hands of one man is far less profitable to the
nation in every way than when its ownership is divided among
one thousand men. The evil of permitting large tracts of the
national domain to be consolidated and controlled by the few
against the many is enhanced when the persons controlling it are
aliens. It is but fair that the public land should be disposed of
only to actual settlers and to those who are citizens of the Ee-
public, or willing to become so.
OUR SHIPPING INTERESTS.
Among our national interests one languishes — the foreign
carrying-trade. It was very seriously crippled in our civil war,
and another blow was given to it in the general substitution of
steam for sail in ocean traffic. With a frontage on the two great
oceans, with a freightage larger than that of any other nation,
we have every inducement to restore our navigation. Yet the
Government has hitherto refused its help. A small share of the
encouragement given by the Government to railways and to
manufactures, and a small share of the capital and the zeal given
by our citizens to those enterprises, would have carried our ships
to every sea and to every port. A law just enacted removes some
of the burdens upon our navigation and inspires hope that this
great interest may at last receive its due share of attention. All
eflforts in this direction should receive encouragement.
THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANOB. 293
SACREDNESS OF THE BALLOT.
This survey of our condition as a nation reminds us that
material prosperity is but a mockery if it does not tend to pre-
serve the liberty of the people. A free ballot is the safeguard of
Eepublican institutions, without which no national welfare is
assured. A popular election, honestly conducted, embodies the
very majesty of true governmeEt. Ten millions of voters desire
to take part in the pending contest. The safety of the Republic
rests upon the integrity of the ballot, upon the security of suffrage
to the citizen. To deposit a fraudulent vote is no worse a crime
against constitutional liberty than to obstruct the deposit of an
honest vote. He who corrupts suffrage strikes at the very root
of free government. He is the arch-enemy of the Eepublic.
He forgets that in trampling upon the rights of others he fatally
imperils his own rights. " It is a good land which the Lord our
God doth give us," but we can maintain our heritage only by
guarding with vigilance the source of popular power.
I am, with great respect,
Your obedient servant,
James G. Blaiitb.
CHAPTEE XIV.
AT HOME AND AMONG HIS FKIENDS.
Home life a test of character. — Mr. Blaine the friend and adviser of his
children. — The first home of Mr. Blaine's in Augusta. — Respected and
beloved by his employees and townsmen. — Teacher in a Mission Sunday-
school. — Religious views.— His family. — Homes in Washington and Au-
gusta.— A friend's reasons for supporting Mr. Blaine.
■T"T7"HAT a man is worth in his own home and to his inti-
V V mate friends is a tolerably exact measure of his worth
to the world. The quality of feeling there is in the heart de-
termines the kind of thinking you will get from the head.
The influence of things that are oftenest seen, of surroundings
that make the unvarying setting of busy trying life, of faces
that smile or frown, of voices that, tender or harsh, have grown
familiar as the echoes of our own, in this there is the making
or the marring of character. The truth holds that what a
man gets from those to whom he stands closest, and what he
gives to them, greatly determines the man.
It is said and believed, too, that the private life of a public
man need not be too closely scrutinized. How long does it
take for popular indifference to the private life and character
of public servants to beget in them indifference to public vir-
tues .? Just long enough to bring National disgrace and ruin
uncomfortably near.
Mr. Blaiae's home is no better, no purer, no more sacred and
beneficent in its quiet influence than thousands of others where
humbler lives are bound together around a common hearth.
It is an American home of the best New England type.
AT HOME AND AMONG HIS FRIENDS. 295
Piety, unity, hospitality are its watchwords. Mr. Blaine is
not only the head and ruler of the family, he is also the friend
and adviser of every member of it, coming into close sympathy
with all, suiting to each that particular word of counsel and
that special help which in his watchful care he may see each
needs. He rarely speaks a harsh word to any of his children,
and treats them all with unusual indulgence. No one who
enjoys the hospitality of that home but owns ilfs perfect unity,
the harmony without a single discordant note that seems at
all times to prevail in it. That it is a home hallowed by a
peculiar Christian piety, is the glad testimony of those who,
as pastors and friends, have entered within the secrets of its
life!
When Mr. Blaine moved to Augulta he occupied an old-
fashioned house on Green street, formerly the homestead of
his wife's family. He had no special room set apart for a
study, but usually did his editorial work in the dining-room.
Some of the men in his employ lived Avith him and enjoyed the
blessings of his home. One of these men, who has since become
proprietor and editor of the Kennebec Journal, says :
I wish every voter in America had had my opportunity for
eighteen months, right in his own home, to see and know Mr.
Blaine; they would find out what a royal man he is.
Mr. Blaine enjoyed from the first the respect and favor of
the community in which he lived. He knew no distinctions
of rank or social position, and was always a gentleman in his
dealings with the humblest of those with whom he was daily
brought in contact.
Nearly thirty years ago it was proposed to start a Sunday-
school in one of the most degraded parts of the city. " People's
Hall " was chosen for the Sunday-school room, and Mr. Blaine
became the teacher of the Bible-class. It was a rough neigh-
296 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
borhood, chiefly taken up with dance-houses and low resorts of
every kind. The people who composed the Bible-class came
in their shirt-sleeves, with the fumes of tobacco and bad
whisky still lingering about them. Mr. Blaine prepared him-
self for his Sunday work with particular care, and succeeded in
keeping the undivided attention of his somewhat exacting
hearers by the clearness and power with which he expounded
the truths of Scripture. A man who owns that by his effort
he was rescued from a life of vice and crime, said of him :
" Not a day passes but I bless the name of Blaine. The words
uttered long years ago, in that Sunday-school class, ring in
my ears to-day."
Kev. Dr. Ecob, a former pastor of Mr. Blaine, wrote to the
Albany Evening Journal soon after the nomination :
I have known Mr. Blaine since 1872. During nearly ten years
of that time I was pastor of the church in Augusta of which Mr.
and Mrs. Blaine are members. The satisfaction I take in his
nomination is based upon such a knowledge of him as only a
pastor can gain. I believe that I am too true a Eepublican, and
I know that my conception of citizenship is too high to permit
me to ratify the exaltation of any man whose character has not
the true ring. I have been very near to Mr. Blaine, not only
in the most trying pohtical crisis, but in the sharper trial of great
grief in the household, and have never yet detected a false note.
I would not be understood as avowing too much for human
nature. I mean that as I have known him he has stood loyally
by his convictions ; that his word has always had back of it a
clear purpose, and that purpose has always been worthy of the
highest manhood.
In his home he was always the soul of geniality and good cheer.
It was always summer in that house, whatever the Maine winter
might be without. And not only his " rich neighbors and kins-
men " welcomed him home, but a long line of the poor hailed
the return of that family as a special Providence. In the church
he is honored and beloved. Not only his presence on Sabbath,
•AT HOME AND AMONG HIS FRIENDS, 297
but his influence, his wise counsels, his purse are freely devoted to
the interest of the noble old South Church of Augusta.
The hold Mr. Blaine has maintained upon the hearts of such
great numbers of his countrymen is not suflSciently explained by
brilliant gifts ; the secret lies in his generous, manly. Christian
character. Those who have known him best are not surprised
that his friends all over the country have been determined that
he should secure the highest honor within their gift. It is because
they believe in him. The office has sought the man, the political
papers to the contrary notwithstanding. I have absolute knowl-
edge that in 1880 he did not lift a finger to influence the Conven-
tion. He was quietly at home devoting himself to his business
affairs, and steadfastly refused the entreaties even of his own family
to interest himself in behalf of the nomination. I, for one, shall
put my conscience into my vote next November.
In a letter written in 1876, Mr. Blaine said, with dignity :
My ancestors on my father's side were, as you know, always
identified with the Presbyterian Church, and they were promi-
nent and honored in the old colony of Pennsylvania. But I will
never consent to make any declaration on the subject, and for
two reasons : First, because I abhor the introduction of anything
that looks like a religious test or qualification for office in a Ee-
public where perfect freedom of conscience is the birthright of
every citizen; and, second, because my mother was a devoted
Catholic. I would not for a thousand Presidencies speak a dis-
respectful word of my mother's religion, and no pressure will
draw me into any avowal of hostility or unfriendliness to Catho-
lics, though I have never received, and do not expect any political
support from them.
Mr. Blaine has six children, three sons and three daughters.
The eldest, William Walker Blaine, is a graduate of Yale
College, and Columbia Law School, New York, and is now
Assistant Counsel for the United States in the Court of
Alabama Claims. The second son, Emmons Blaine, a grad-
uate of Harvard College, is in the employment of the Chicago
298 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G, BLAINE.
and Northwestern Railroad Company, at Chicago. The
third son, James Gillespie Blaine, Jr., has not yet completed
his education. The eldest daughter, Alice, is the wife of
Colonel Coppenger, of the United States Army, and Margaret
and Harriet, the young daughters, are still at home.
Mr. Blaine's present residence in Augusta is a plain, square
house, surrounded by ample grounds, and a full view of the
capitol, which stands next to it. Both there and in Washing-
ton he has a valuable library, especially rich in political and
general history, and in biography. He is a close and constant
reader, and his excellent memory enables him to retain what-
ever of value he discovers between the covers of any book he
has read. His Washington residence was for many years the
plain, substantial brick building No. 821 Fifteenth street. A
few years ago he sold this house to Mr. Travers, of New York, for
$24,500, and built for himself a more elegant mansion in an-
other part of the city, but he occupied this new residence only
a part of one winter, and on the death of Mr. Garfield leased
the property to Mr. Leiter, of Chicago. Last winter he rented
a house on Lafayette Square, where much ^^f his history was
written.
The testimony of a close friend, whose words we have else-
where quoted, may serve to convey to our readers some idea of
the confidence and admiration which Mr. Blaine has been able
to inspire in the one who knew him best. In a letter to the
Christian Union, giving his reasons for supporting Mr. Blaine,
Rev. Dr. Ecob says :
I most cordially support Mr. Blaine for his own sake. I believe
in the man. This confidence has steadily strengthened through
twelve years of personal acquaintance. The story of Mr. Blaine's
public service is ''known and read of all men." The character
which his friends have loved in private life is the motive and light
0^. the public career, In all the varied and complicated problems
AT HOME AND AMONG HIS FKIENDS. 299
which have engaged the American people for the past twenty
years, he has never failed to lift his voice and cast his vote on the
side with the enlightened conscience of the country. He has not
been quietly for the right, but openly, aggressively, mightily for
the right. Let any man of clear head and clean heart search the
record of Mr. Blaine's official utterances and votes, from the
Maine Legislature to the last act as Secretary of State, and I
challenge him to impeach that record at any important point.
Even his mistakes are of that open, manly character that all
manly men readily condone.
In my estimation of this man I would not forget that he is
peculiarly American, both as a citizen and a statesman — a fact
which I am proud to say touches my deepest, most sacred sym-
pathies. Among our distinguished citizens, who would more
fitly represent American Republicanism than Mr. Blaine ? He
has everywhere steadily resisted the monarchic, aristocratic idea.
He has never failed to enthusiastically champion American
citizenship, dating, as it does, back to that fundamental, un-
changeable element, manhood. His public acts have always
pai'taken of the color and glow of this personal devotion. He
loves his country. He appreciates, as few of our statesmen seem
to, the scope and significance of our American nationahty.
Seasons like the above establish my faith in Mr. Blaine as a
man. Character is one. It is not part private, part public. It
is all public. What we know hira to be in the small arc of his
private personal life, that he must be in the whole great circle of
the public career. I shall vote con amor e for the man.
He — Mr; Blaine — is a man of good temper and temperament,
though with a certain intellectual vehemence that might some-
times be mistaken for anger, of strong physique, wonderful
powers of endurance and of recuperation, of great activity and
industry, kindly and frank, easily approachable, and ready to
aid all good causes with tongue, pen, and purse. His studies
•^ave been largely on political questions and political history.
He is a» intense believer in the American Republic, one and
300 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAIME.
indivisible, jealous and watchful for her honor, her dignity, and
her right of eminent domain, ready to brave the wrath of the
East for the welfare of the West, as in the Chinese question ;
ready to differ from political friends rather than permit the
indefinite suspension of the writ of habeas corpus ; ready to
brave the wrath of the Conservatives for the rights of the
Southern blacks, as in his opposition to President Hayes'
Southern policy — and perfectly ready to give the British lion's
mane a tweak when that fine old king of beasts crashes too
clumsily among our fishing flakes.
Mr. Blaine was not a poor man when he entered Congress,
in 1863, and he is not a millionaire now. For twenty years
he has owned a valuable coal tract of several hundred acres
near Pittsburg. This yielded him a handsome income many
years before he entered Congress, and the investment has been
a profitable one during his public life.
However men may differ respecting Mr, Blaine's public
career, all allow that he is the most conspicuous of American
statesmen, eminent in council and in debate. No one living
has better earned by greater service to the Nation, the highest
honor the Nation can bestow. He has a firm will, long ex-
perience, unalloyed love for his country. Eipe in judgment,
prompt in action, patriotic always, he deserves to be the Head
of the Eepublic of which he has been so long the pride.
CHAPTER XV.
PERSONAL TRAITS.
Outward appearance. — Not a perfect man. — Human weaknesses. — Exag-
gerated praise and blame. — Private character. — Opinion not evidence. —
Knowledge of the ignorant. — Qualities which Mr. Blaine possesses in
common with all successful men. — His remarkable memory. — Story of a
war correspondent. — Not eccentric. — Frankness and sincerity. — Four char-
acteristics.— Magnetism. — Sympathy with public opinion. — Executive
ability. — Americanism. — Final estimate.
THE fact of success is its own reason. Of two acorns
planted side by side, one may grow to be a great oak,
and the other never lift its head above the sod. The most we
can do in the way of accounting for a successful man, is to say
that the lines fell to him in pleasant places, and that things
came to him to do that he was able to perform. We do not
undertake to discover the secret of Mr. Blaine's greatness. If
we did, we should soon have at our throats a whole pack of
politicians, who would deny alike the secret and the great-
ness. But even those who, in their honest opposition to the
man, doubt his integrity and worth, may patiently follow us
while we try to point out a few personal traits of a prominent
and influential American.
As the road to the inner truth lies through the outer shell,
and as a man's looks are so often a sort of shorthand character
for the temper and quality of the hidden self, we will take
space enough at the outset of this study to give whatever ac-
curate notion we can of the outward appearance of Mr. Blaine.
He is tall, with a full figure, broad shoulders, large limbs and
302 BlOGitAPHt OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
features, and a well-knit frame ; Ws hair and beard, which he
wears closely cut, are touched with gray, and under his heavy
eyebrows his black eyes flash and sparkle from their deep-lying
sockets. At fifty-four, he bears himself with the easy grace of
an athlete, and steps with the firm tread of youth. His whole
bearing suggests alertness, equipoise, self-control. In these
the mind has played tutor to the body.
Mr. Blaine has, throughout his life, been distinctively a
man of affairs, and to be trusted, as he has been at all times,
by those who have come in the closest contact with him, is
the most unanswerable circumstance for which those who
assail him under the impulse of a political contest must ofier
an explanation. As the leading spirit in the management of
a newspaper of no small proportions, as a joint proprietor of
lands and mines of considerable extent, he has, without excep-
tion, retained the amicable confidence and respect of his asso-
ciates, who have belonged to that class popularly known as
business men — a class proverbially free from sentimental or
political considerations in the determination and pursuit of
a commercial policy.
That the great principles of human equity were deeply
impressed upon his character was never more clearly dem-
onstrated than during his brief though brilliant career as
Secretary of State, when his first efforts were devoted to a
settlement of the unhappy dispute between Chili and Peru,
which was resulting in untold misery, distress, and finan-
cial ruin to thousands of innocent people. His policy was
primarily that of the humanitarian, actuated by simple good-
ness of heart. Rev. Dr. Webb, of Boston, who was at one
time pastor of the Old South Church, in Augusta, a strict
Calvinist, whose theology would not lead him to very rose-
colored views of human nature, recently said of his former
parishioner : " The manoeuvres, bargains, crimes, and plots
PERSONAL tRAlTS. 303
which have "been attribilted to him within the last few months,
might have been attributed to General Gordon, in Khartoum,
with just about as much truth. From personal knowledge
and confidence in the absolute truthfulness of words spoken to
me, I do not believe Mr. Blaine has spoken a word, or written
a letter, or spent a farthing to secure his present nomination.
And if he is elected, as I trust he will he, it will he because
the people want him to be President. If elected, he will call
to his aid some of the purest and ablest men in the country ;
he will give an administration which for justice, goodness,
and stability will compare well with, the best that has pre-
ceded it."
The opinion of Mr. Blaine's clergyman deserves to weigh
much with those who do not know him personally, and must
take the statements of others as to his personal character.
While other men have received the honor of which the same
could be said, the temptation to take some steps to gain a
prize which had twice barely escaped his grasp must have
heen such as would have beguiled a less self-commanded
character out of the quiet path which, as a private citizen, he
had marked out for himself.
It is pleasant, too, to note with what confidence his late
spiritual adviser foreshadows the influences that will surround
Mr. Blaine should he become President. This assurance
argues a thorough knowledge, which the sacred relations of
pastor to layman make incumbent upon the former to indi-
cate but not disclose.
Certain characteristics are common to all men who make
any figure in the world, and to affirm that Mr. Blaine
possesses these in a marked degree, is only saying in longer
terms that he has won a goodly share of Dame Fortune's
favors.
The grace of common sense has been abundantly bestowed
304 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
upon Mm, and industry and perseverance are the master words
of his career. He has always been a hard worker, often pro-
longing the hours of toil far into the night. It is said that in
order to prepare himself for the editorship of the Kennebec
Journal, he read through the files of the paper from the very
beginning, so that he might not be embarrassed in his writing
by ignorance of its past policy. The same spirit of thorough-
ness and painstaking care have characterized him in all the
positions he has been called upon to fill. His readiness in
every emergency to say and do the right thing, may be partly
due to this thorough habit which enabled him to summon up
at once and put into speedy action all the powers of his mind.
He is, moreover, possessed, as we have said, of a retentive
memory. In this respect he is not unlike Henry Clay, whom
he so much resembles in other ways.
He rarely forgets a name, a face never, and his accurate
recollection of incidents and facts makes him a formidable
antagonist in debate. A story illustrating his tenacity of
recollection is told by a war correspondent of the New York
Herald. The story runs as follows :
In 1863 I wrote an account, some twelve columns long, of the
battle of Chickamauga. About twenty lines of the entire account
were devoted to the narration of a trifling incident. A white
pigeon, or dove, confused by the smoke of the last desperate
combat at the close of the battle, in which George H. Thomas
repulsed Longstreet's attack on his right, fluttered awhile over
the heads of Thomas, Garfield, Wood, and others, grouped in a
little hollow in the field for protection from the rebel sharp-
shooters, and then perched on the limb of a dead tree Just above
them. Here it sat until the firing ceased, and then flew north-
ward unhurt. It was a pretty incident, and, of course, I took
all the license of a writer and made it as striking a passage of the
narrative as I could. In 1874, eleven years later, while in the
Capitol one day, I was introduced to Mr. Blaine, who was at the
PERSONAL TRAITS. 305
time Speaker of the House. If I remember rightly, I had never
before seen him, and I supposed he had never heard of me.
Imagine my astonishment, then, when he said abruptly on hear-
ing my name, "You're the man I've been wanting to see for ten
years."
He took my arm and drew me half away to one side of the cor-
ridor. '•' Did you write for The Herald an account of Chickamauga
in which a white dove figured rather poetically?" he asked, and
then went on to recall what I had written. '^ Now," he con-
tinued, " tell me, was that a true incident, or only done to make
the story readable." I assured him it was true, and mentioned
that General Garfield, who was in the House, would probably re-
call it, as he was present. Nothing more of interest passed be-
tween us; but naturally I have since sworn by the man who
could recall my unknown name and what I had written about a
mere incident occurring ten years before. He was so earnest in
his inquiry that I have never doubted that his curiosity in the
matter, small as the incident was, was genuine.
Four characteristics are commonly ascribed to Mr. Blaine,
which, if not simply peculiar to him at least'in their combina-
tion, serve to distinguish him among the men of his time.
The first is his magnetism, a sort of indescribable quality
which everybody recognizes, but nobody is able to quite
account for. It is wholly independent of anything we may
do or say, something which belongs to his personality, or
rather which emanates from his personality, and is inseparable
from it as fragrance is from the flower. It is simply mag-
netism— a force to be felt. Lincoln became popular because
he put himself into the breach and fought out a glorious
triumph against unimagined odds. G-arfield was beloved for
what he suffered. Mr. Blaine is the most remarkable example
in our day of a man whose popularity primarily rests not at
all upon anything that he has done, but upon the subtle
charm of the man himself For most men, success is essential
306 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMllS G. BLAINE.
to power. While Napoleon was making French arms the terror
of Europe, France was content to obey him. After Waterloo
came another revolution. Here is a man who, in spite of de-
feat, in spite of calumny, in spite of fierce political opposition
steadily maintained for many years, maintains a personal fol-
lowing and arouses an enthusiasm which, by common consent
of friend and foe, are unequaled within the limits of the
States.
There is a popularity which is within the reach of any man
who can tickle the ears of the crowd, or who happens to suit
its passing mood. Any demagogue may have that. Followers
are so like the leaves which the tempest gathers in its grasp,
but which scatter when the wind goes down. There is some-
thing deeper than this clever juggler's wit in the man who
holds through good report and ill the affection and admira-
tion of a swelling throng. Call liim by what names we may,
heap upon him all the abuse that malice can contrive or
honest search can discover, hate him with the hatred of Cain
for his brother, he has yet a certain divine quality — if Satanic
still divine — something in the man and his maker, a royal
might before which, though our knees were stiff and of brass,
we must down and worship. In Mr. Blaine we have sug-
gested the most potential factor in the mutations of history,
when empires were built up or torn down through the power
of a single man — the power he has of making friends and hold-
ing them through thick and thin. It is not a common gift.
It is not anything that can be acquired. It does not take the
place of character, and it does not attest character. It is a qual-
ity which made the Heroes, and to a man who in a land of uni-
versal suffrage hopes for political preferment it is almost indis-
pensable. To confirm what we have said out of the mouth of an
unwilling witness, let us quote what was said of Mr. Blaine a
week before the Chicago Convention by the Buffalo Express,
PERSONAL TRAITS. 307
a paper which in the preliminary canvass consistently advo-
cated the nomination of Mr. Edmunds.
It is clear that the one name upon which interest chiefly
centres in Chicago is that of James G. Blaine. He is the one
man mentioned there who, as a political leader, can be justly
called great. There are many politicians and a few statesmen,
but there is only one candidate who, by virtue of his personal
attractions, his innate qualities of mind and of heart, attracts a
large following. He is the one man for whom his friends and
supporters can accept no substitute.
The Express has not been a supporter of Mr. Blaine's candi-
dacy. It does not now believe his nomination to be wise. It
still hopes Mr. Edmunds will be nominated. But Mr. Blaine»s
wonderful personal qualities, and his amazing hold upon the
affections of the great mass of Eepublican voters of this country,
have been so emphasized in the preliminary contest that they
cannot any longer be a matter of dispute, if, indeed, they ever
have been disputed. For the third time in eight years he is a
candidate before a Republican National Convention. Each time
he has been opposed by the powerful lever of political patronage.
But, though twice beaten by combinations against him, he
appeals the third time stronger than ever. He has not only
held his own under adA-erse circumstances, but he has grown in
the popular mind— becomes yearly a greater favorite — and to-day
fulfills more nearly than ever before Colonel Ingersoll's won-
derful picture of ''a man who is the grandest combination of
heart, conscience, and brain beneath the flag."
The second characteristic is quickness to discern the drift of
public opinion. It will at once be said that this is only a time-
serving spirit. It may be that, but it need not be. It may
make of a man a mere trimmer in politics, who changes his
opinions as often as he does his coat, and in some cases a great
deal oftener, or it may accredit him as a genuine leader — one
who gets his title to command not so much by impressing his
will upon others as by coming into such close sympathy with
308 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
his followers, that he is able to know by a sort of instinct
which way they want to he led, and by his superior wisdom
and experience to lead to the desired end by the safest and
most direct road. It is one thing, and an important thing, to
form public opinion, to arouse sluggish minds and consciences
to realize evils which were before complacently endured. It
is another and quite as important a thing to give practical
expression to the reform spirit where it is once thoroughly
awakened. Mr. Blaine is not a reformer, but he is in full
sympathy with all well-organized reform movements. It is
urged against him that he has not been a prominent advocate
of civil service reform. It is true he has not taken an active
part in this agitation, but he was the chief adviser of the Ad-
ministration which did attempt to enforce the principles of
honesty and efficiency in our public service. In a speech de-
livered at Winterport, Maine, he very clearly indicates his real
interest in the reform agitation, and his sagacity with respect
to its application in practice.
" There are many reforms," he said, "which I should be glad
to see, and which I have for many years believed in. I should
be glad to see every Federal officer, however honorable, appointed
for a specific period, during which he could not be removed ex-
cept for cause, which cause should be specified, proved, and made
matter of record. I should be glad to see the tenure of all sub-
ordinate officers made longer, at least, than a Presidential term,
so that the incoming of a new Administration should not be
harassed, annoyed, crippled, and injured by the distribution of
offices. Seven years would be a good length of term, and would
efiect the desired end. It would break joints with the Presiden-
tial term, and would avoid the evil of which I have spoken.
There are a great many honest advocates of reform in the civil
service who beheve in a life tenure for all subordinate officials. I
have never been able to persuade myself that this would be wise,
even if practicable, and I am quite sure that it is not prac-
PERSONAL TRAITS. 309
ticable. Life tenure means a pension to the incumbent, and,
with a hundred thousand office-holders, this would impose an
intolerable burden on the tax-payer. It would create what
might be termed a privileged class, which is always sure, in the
end, to prove unpopular and odious in the eyes of the people."
Great political leaders are rarely the authors of the reforms
they carry out. It is their office to interpret to popular will,
not to antagonize it, nor anticipate it. They are leaders by
virtue of being servants and representatives.
The third characteristic of Mr. Blaine follows naturally upon
the last. His capacity is executive, not original. He has not
framed as much legislature as a great many men, his com-
peers in Congress, who have attained less distinction, but in
expediting the passage of bills, in marshaling the party forces
upon a single point, in the field service of the political contests
which are fought in legislative halls, he is without an equal.
Campaigns well planned are often lost for want of a man to
strike a blow in time. It is more as a party leader and organ-
izer than as a statesman in the strict sense of the term that
Mr. Blaine has been most successful. His good judgment, his
ability to adapt means to ends, his personal power, his unfail-
ing sagacity, which, properly speaking, is a sort of practical
wisdom, have enabled him to do what few other men could do
— to successfully control and direct legislation ; and right here
we may stop to note in passing that just such qualities as these
are demanded in the President of the United States. His busi-
ness is not to create legislation, but to pass judgment upon it.
Supposing him to have the other necessary qualifications— ex-
perience, common sense, knowledge, and integrity — it would be
no disparagement to a President that he did not possess original
genius. Andrew Jackson was a very amusing man, but it is
pretty well agreed that the day for chief magistrates of the
^' Old Hickory " type of originality has passed away,
310 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
The last of the four characteristics which, in their harmonious
union in a single personality, may be taken to fairly distin-
guish Mr. Blaine, is his intense Americanism.
He heartily supports the American theory of protection as
best adapted to develop the industries of the country, and
during his brief career as Secretary of State his policy was
directed to secure for the great American Eepublic her fair
share in the commerce of the world. Said a prominent Phil-
adelphia lawyer, recently : " Although opposed to Mr. Blaine
politically, I respect and admire him as a man and an Ameri-
can, but most of all do I admire his intense Americanism."
The final estimate of any man may best be written as an
epitaph on his tombstone ; contemporary judgment is fallible
because it cannot discern the end from the beginning, nor
measure the far-reaching effects of the present act which it
cheers or hisses. Some things must still be greatly dark which
only to-morrow's light can make plain. We cannot speak for
history, but, perhaps, in the assize of to-day this verdict will
not be disputed. Among the men who have worn and held a
large place in the esteem and affection of a great people, who
have been quick and responsive to its calls, and able to lead in
its councils, who have espoused with undivided loyalty what
they regarded as highest among the great men of our day,
and generals who have gloried in the name of America, the
man who to-morrow shall tell the story of to-day must write
the honorable and honored name of James Gillespie Blaine.
APPENDIX,
I.
MULLIGAK LETTEES.
We have alluded in the body of the book to the affair
which is commonly called the " Mulligan letters." We now
give the report from the Congressional Record of Mr. Blaine's
defence; also a letter of explanation, written April 26, 1884,
by William Walter Phelps ; leaving the impartial reader to
say whether the refutation of the charges is not complete.
On June 5, 1876, when the morning hour had expired, Mr.
Blaine rose to a question of privilege. Mr. S. S. Cox, of 'New
York, was the Speaker pro tempore. Mr. Blaine spoke as
follows :
Mr. BLAINE. If the morning hour has expired, I will rise to a question
of privilege.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The morning hour has expired.
Mr. BLAINE. Mr. Speaker, on the 3d day of May this resolution was
passed by the House:
Whereas it Ls publicly alleged, and is not denied by the oflScers of the Union Pacific
Railroad Company, that that corporation did, in the year 1871 or 1872, become the owner
of certain bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Raih-oad Company, for which bonds
the said Union Pactflc Railroad Company paid a consideration largely in excess of their
actual or market value, and that the board of directors of said Union Pacific Railroad
Company, though urged, have neglected to investigate said transaction: Therefore,
Be it resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquu-e if any such
transaction took place, and, if so, what were the circumstances and inducements thereto,
from what person or persons said bonds were obtained and upon what consideration, and
whether the transaction was from corrupt design or in furtherance of any corrupt
object; and that the committee have power to send for persons and papers.
That resolution on its face, and in its fair intent, was obviously designed to
find out whether any improper thing had been done by the LFnion Pacific
Railroad Company; and of course, incidentally thereto, to find out with whom
the transaction was made. The gentleman who offered that resolution offered
it when I was not in the House, and my colleague, [Mr. Frte,] after it was
objected to, went to the gentleman and stated that he would have no objec-
tion to it, as be kuew I would uot have if I were present m the House, The
312 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
gentleman from Massacliusetts, [Mr. Tarbox,] to whom_ I refer, took especial
pains to say to my colleague that the resolution was not in any sense aimed at
me. The gentleman will pardon me if I say that I had a slight incredulity
upon that assurance given by him to my colleague.
No sooner was the subcommittee designated than it became entirely obvi-
ous that the resolution was solely and only aimed at me. I think there had
not been three questions asked until it was obvious that the investigation was
to be a personal one upon me, and that the Union Pacific Railroad or any
other incident of the transaction was secondary, insignificant, and unimpor-
tant. I do not complain of that; I do not say that I had any reason to com-
plain of it. If the investigation was to be made in that personal sense, I was
ready to meet it.
The gentleman on whose statement the accusation rested, Mr. Harrison,
wa;s first called. He stated what he knew from rumor. Then there were
called Mr. Rollins, IVIr. Moi-ton, and Mr. Millard from Omaha, a Government
director of the Union Pacific road, and finally Thomas A. Scott. The testi-
mony was completely and conclusively in disproof of the charge that there
was any possibility that I could have had anything to do with the transaction.
I expected (and I so stated to the gentleman from Virginia, the honorable
chairman of the subcommittee) that I should have an early report; but the
case was prolonged and prolonged and prolonged; and when last week the
witnesses had seemed to be exhausted,, I was somewhat sui-prised to be told
that the committee would now turn to investigate a transaction of the North-
ern Pacific Railroad Company on a newspaper report that there had been
some effort on my part with a friend in Boston to procure for him a share in
that road, which effort, had proved abortive, the money having been returned.
I asked the honorable gentleman from Virginia on what authority he made
that investigation— not that I cared about it; I begged him to be assured I
did not; and the three witnesses that he called could not have been more
favorable to me within any possibility. But I wanted to know on what
authority I was to be arraigned before the country upon an investigation of
that kind; and a resolution offered in this House on the 31st of January by
the gentleman from California [Mr. Ltjttrell] was read as the authority
for investigating that little transaction in Boston. I ask the House to bear
with me while I read a somewhat lengthy resolution:
Whereas the several raih-oad companies hereinafter named, to wit, the Northern
Pacific, the Kansas Pacific, the Union. Pacific, the Central Branch of the Union Pacific,
the Western Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Sioux City and Pacific, the Northern
Pacific, the Texas and Pacific, and all Pacific roads or branches to -which bonds or other
subsidies have been granted by the Government, have received from the United States,
under the act of Congress of July 1, 1862, the act March 3, 1874, and the several acts
amendatory thereof, money subsidies amounting to over $64,000,000, land subsidies
amounting to over 220,000,0()0 acres of the pubUc domain, bond subsidies amounting to
$ , and interest amounting to $ — , to aid in the construction of their several
roads; and whereas it is but just and proper that the Government and people should
understand the status of such roads and the disposition made by such companies in the
construction of their roads of the subsidies granted by the Government: Therefore,
Be it resolved. That the Judiciary Committee be, and are hereby, instructed and
authorized to inquire into and report to this House, first, whether the several railroad
companies hereinbefore named, or any of them, have, in the construction of their rail-
roads and telegraph lines, fuUy complied with the requirements of law granting money,
bonds, and land subsidies to aid such companies in the construction of theii- railroads and
telegraph liues; second, whether the several raih'oad companies or any of them have
formed within themselves corporate or construction companies for the purpose of sub-
letting to such corporate or construction companies contracts for building and equip-
ping said roads or any portion thereof, and, if so, whether the money, land, and bond
subsidies granted hy the Government have been properly apphed by said companies or
ivay of them ia the construction of their road or roads; third, whether tbeBeyeralrailroft4
AfPENDli. 313
cotdpanies or any of them have forfeited their land subsidies by failing to construct and
equip their road or roads or any portion of them as required by law ; and, fourth, that,
for the purpose of making a thorough investigation of the several Pacific railroads or
any of them, the Judiciary Committee shall have full power to send for persons and
papers, and, after thorougn investigation shall have been made, shall report to this House
such measure or bill as will secure to the Government full indemnity for all losses occa-
sioned by fraudulent transactions or negligence on the part of said railroad companies
or any of them, or on the part of any corporate or construction company, in the expendi-
tures of moneys, bonds, or interest, or in the disposition of land donated by the Gov-
ernment for the construction of the roads or any of them or any portion thereof, and for
the non-payment of interest lawfully due the Government, or any other claim or claims
the United States may have against such railroad company or companies.
Now, that resolution embraces a very wide scope. It undoubtedly em-
braces a great many things which it is highly proper for the Government to
look into; but I think the gentleman from Calif ornia who offered that resolu-
tion will be greatly surprised to find that the first movement made under it to
investigate what the Northern Pacific Railroad Company has done was to
bring the whole force of that resolution to find out the circumstances of a lit-
tle transaction in Boston which never became a transaction at all. I asked
the gentleman from Virginia how he deduced his power. Well, he said it
would take three months to go through the whole matter, but in
about three months it would reach this point, and that he might as well
begin on me right there. Well, he began; and three witnesses testified pre-
cisely what the circumstances were. I had no sooner got through with that,
than I was advised that in another part of the Capitol, without the slightest
notice in the world being given to me, with no monition, no warning to me,
I was being arraigned before a committee known as the Real Estate Pool
Committee, which was originally organized to examine into the affairs of the
estate of Jay Cooke & Co. , and whose powers were enlarged on the 3d day of
April by the following resolution:
Whereas, on the 24th day of January, A.D. 1876, the House adopted the following reso-
lution:
" Resolved, That a special committee of five members of this House, to be selected by
the Speaker, be appointed to inquire into the nature and history of said real estate pool
and the character of said settlement, with the amoimt of property involved, in which ■
Jay Cooke & Co. were intei-ested, and the amoimt paid or to be paid in settlement, with
power to send for persons and papers and report to this House:" Therefore,
Be it resolved, That said committee be further authorized and directed to likewise in-
vestigate any and all matters touching the oflacial misconduct of any ofiBcer of the Gov-
ernment of the United States or of any member of the present Congress of the United
States which may come to the knowledge of said committee: Provided, That this resolu-
tion shall not affect any such matter now being investigated by any other committee
under authority of either House of Congress; and for this piu-pose said committee shall
have the same powera to send for persons and papers as conferred by said original
resolution.
They began an Investigation which I am credibly informed, and I think
the chairman of that committee will not deny, was specifically aimed at me.
I had no notice of it, not the remotest; no opportunity to be confronted with
witnesses. I had no idea that any such thing was going on, not the slightest.
So that on three distinct charges I was being investigated at the same time
and having no opportunity to meet any one of them; and I understand,
though I was not present, that the gentleman from Virginia has this morning
introduced a fourth, to find out something about the Kansas Pacific Railroad,
a transaction fifteen years old if it ever existed, and has simimoned mmierous
Mr. HUNTON. What was the statement the gentleman just made ? I
did not fully understand it.
^r. BLAINE. That an investigation has been set on foot by the gentle-
814 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G, BLAINE,
man, aimed at me, in regard to the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and that wit-
nesses have been summoned on that question, the transaction out of which it
grew being fifteen years old.
Now, 1 say — and I state it boldly^that, tinder these general powers to
investigate Pacific railroads and their transactions, the whole enginery of this
cotnmittee is aimed personally at me; and I want that to be understood by
the country. I have no objection to it; but I want you by name to organize
a committee to investigate James G. Blaine; I want to meet the question
squarely. That is the whole aim and intent; and the gentleman from Vir-
ginia and the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Knott] will pardon me for
saying that when this investigation was organized I felt that such was the
whole purpose and object. I will not further make personal references; for
I do not wish to stir up any blood on this question; but ever since a cei'tain
debate here in January it has been known that there ai'e gentlemen in this
Hall whose feelings were peculiarly exasperated toward me. And I beg the
gentleman from Kentucky, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to
remember that when this matter affecting me went to his committee, while
there were seven democratic members of that committee, he took as the
majority of the subcommittee the two who were from the South and had been
in the rebel army.
Mr. KNOTT. "Will the gentleman allow me one word?
Mr. BLAINE. After a moment; I have not a great deal of time.
Mr. KNOTT, As the gentleman has made an insinuation, I prefer to
answer it now.
Mr. BLAINE. Very well.
Mr. KNOTT. These railroad investigations were referred to that com-
mittee before I ever heard the gentleman's name insinuated in connection with
them; and I will say furthermore that I had no act or part in instituting any
investigation implicating the gentleman at all.
Mr. BLAINE. Then when the investigation began, the gentleman from
Virginia who conducted it insisted under that resolution, which was obviously
on its face limited to the seventy-five thousand dollar transaction — the trans-
action with the Union Pacific Railroad — he insisted on going into all th%
affairs of the Fort Smith Railroad as incidental thereto, and pursued that to
such an extent that finally I had myself through my colleague, Mr. Frte,
to take an appeal to the whole committee, and the committee decided that the
gentleman had no right to go there. But when he came back and resumed
the examination he began again exactly in the same way, and was stopped
there and then by my colleague who sits in front, not as my attorney, but as
my friend.
When the famous witness Mulligan came here loaded with infoimation in
regard to the Fort Smith road, the gentleman from Virginia drew out what
he knew had no reference whatever to the question of investigation. He
then and there insisted on aU of my private memoranda being allowed to be
exhibited by that man in reference to business that had no more connection,
no more relation, no more to do with that investigation than with the North
Pole.
And the gentleman tried his best, also, though I believe that has been
abandoned, to capture and use and control my private coiTespondence. This
man had selected out of correspondence running over a great many years
letters which he thought would be peculiarly damaging to me. He came
here loaded with them. He came here for a sensation. He came here
primed. He came here on that particular errand. I was advised of it, and
APPENDIX. Sl5
1 obtained those letters under circumstances Whict tave been nfttoriously
scattered throughout the United States, and are known to everybody. I
have them. I claim I have the entire right to those letters, not only by nat-
ural right, but upon all the precedents and principles of law, as the man who
held those letters in possession held them wrongfully. The committee that
attempted to take those letters from that man for use against me proceeded
wrongfully. They proceeded in all boldness to a most defiant violation of
the ordinary private and personal rights which belong to every American
citizen, and I was willing to stand and meet the Judiciary Committee on
this floor. I wanted them to introduce it. I wanted the gentleman from
Kentucky and the gentleman from Vii"ginia to introduce that question upon
this floor, but they did not do it.
Mr. KNOTT, (in his seat.) I know you did.
Mr. BLAINE. Very well.
Mr. KNOTT. I know you wanted to be made a martyr of. [Laughter.]
Mr. BLAINE. And you did not want to, and there is the difference.
[Laughter and applause.] I go a little further: you did not dare to.
Mr. KNOTT. We will talk about that hereafter.
Mr. BLAINE. I wanted to meet that question. I wanted to invoke all
the power you had in this House on that question.
Mr. HAIVIILTON, of New Jersey. I rise to a question of order. Is this
language parliamentary?
Mr. BLAINE. Yes; entirely so. [Laughter.]
Mr. HA]VIILTON, of New Jersey. I do not ask the gentleman. I ask the
Speaker. I call the gentleman to order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will state his point of
order.
Mr. HAMILTON, of New Jersey. I want to know whether it is in order
for one gentleman on this floor to say to another he dare not do so and so?
The SPEAKER pt^o tempore. The gentleman from New Jersey calls the
gentleman from Maine to order, and under the rules the gentleman from
Maine will be seated, and if there be objectionable words, they will be taken
down.
Mr. KASSON. I wish to say the point of order is simply to the use of
the second person, and I hope gentlemen on both sides will use the third
person.
Mr. BLAINE. I did not.
Mr. KASSON. You said "you."
The SPEAKER pi-o tempore. The Chair will say to gentlemen who have
the privilege of the House, that this display of cheering is entirely out of
order.
Mr. BLAINE. It never ought to be done, and never has been done so
much as during this Congi'ess.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will enforce the order, and the
doorkeepers will assist the Chair, and, if necessary, the Sergeant-at-Arms un-
der the rules will assist the doorkeepers. The gentleman from Maine will
now proceed in order.
Mr. BLAINE. I repeat, the Judiciary Committee I understand have
abandoned that issue against me. I stood up and declined not only on the
conclusion of my own mind, but by eminent legal advice. I was standing
behind the rights which belong to every American citizen, and if they
wanted to treat the question in my person anywhere in the legislative halls or
judicial halls, I was ready. Then there went forth everywhere the idea and
316 BIOGRAPHY OF fiON. JAMBS G. BLAliffi.
impression that because I would not permit that man or any man whom 1
could prevent from holding as a menace over my head my private corre-
spondence there must be something in it most deadly and destructive to my
reputation. I would like any gentleman on this floor— and all gentlemen on
this floor are presumed to be men of afl:airs, whose business has been varied,
whose intercourse has been large — I would like any gentleman to stand up
here and tell me that he is willing and ready to have his private correspond-
ence scanned over and made public for the last eight or ten yeare. I would
like any gentleman to say that. Does it imply guilt? Does it imply wrong-
doing? Does it imply any sense of weakness that a man will protect his
private correspondence? No, sir; it is the first instinct to do it, and it is the
last outrage upon any man to violate it.
Now, Ml'. Speaker, I say that I have defied the power of the House to
compel me to produce those letters. I speak with all respect to this House.
I know its powers, and I trust I respect them. But I say this House has no
more power to order what shall be done or not done with my private corre-
spondence than it has with what I shall do in the nurture and education of my
children; not a particle. The right is as sacred in the one case as it is in the
other. But, sir, having vindicated that right, standing by it, ready to make
any sacrifice in the defense of it, here and now if any gentleman wants to
take issue with me on behalf of this House 1 am ready for any extremity of
contest or conflict in behalf of so sacred a right. And while I am so, I am
not afraid to show the letters. Thank God Almighty I am not ashamed to
show them. There they are, [holding up a package of letters.] There is the
very original package. And with some sense of humiliation, with a morti-
fication that I do not pretend to conceal, with a sense of outrage which I
think any man in my position would feel, I invite the confidence of 44,000,000
of my countrymen while I read those letters from this desk. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The doorkeepers will enforce the rule.
Mr. BLAINE. I beg gentlemen who are my friends to make no manifes-
tation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has directed the doorkeepers to
enforce the rule, and to remove from the Hall persons who are not entitled to
its privileges who are making these manifestations.
Mr. KELLEY. I desire to say, Mr. Speaker, that so far as my observa-
tion extends the applause was within the bar of ihe House.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The doorkeepers are authorized to remove
from the Hall any persons who violate its privileges.
Mr. BLAINE. Now as regards many of these letters I have not the
slightest feeling in reading them. Some of them will require a Uttle expla-
nation. Some of them may possibly, as I have said, involve a feeling of
humiliation. But I would a great deal rather take that than take the evil sur-
mises and still more evil inferences which might be drawn if I did not act
with this frankness.
The first letter I shall read, marked "private and personal," is as follows:
[Private and personal.]
Augusta, Maine, August 31, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: I have been absent so much of late that I did not receive your
last letter until it was several days old. When I last wrote you I was expecting to be in
Boston on a political conference about this time, but I found it impossible to be there,
and it is now impossible for me to leave here until after our election, which occurs Mon-
day week, the 9th. I will try to meet you at the Parker House on the 10th or 11th, avail-
ing myself of the first possible moment for that purpose.
I cannot, however, allow a remark in your letter to pass without comment, You say
APPENDIX. 317
that you have been trying: to get a settlement with me for fifteen months, you have been
trying to induce me to comply with certain demands which you made upon me, without
taking into account any claims I have of a counter kind. This does not fill my
idea of a aettlement, for a settlement must include both sides.
No person could be more anxious for a settlement than I am, and if upon our next inter-
view we cannot reach one, why then we try other means.
But my judgment is that I shall make you so liberal an offer of settlement that you
cannot possibly refuse it.
As one of the elements which I wish to take into account is the note of $10,000 given
you in 1803 for Spencer stock, I desire that you will furnish me with the items of interest
on that note. My impression is that when that note was consolidated into the large note,
which you wiU still hold, that you did not charge me full interest, possibly omitting one
or two years.
I will be obliged if you will give me information on this point, for I intend to sub-
mit to you a full and explicit basis of settlement, and in making it up it is necessary that
I should have this information. Please send it as promptly as you may be able to give
it to me. In haste, very truly yours,
Waerkn Fisher, Jr., Esq. J. G. BLAINE.
There is an allusion there to Spencer stock. I took this letter up first be-
cause I wish to make an explanation as to that. In the month of November,
1861, I was summoned to Boston by a telegram to meet Mr. Fisher and
another gentleman on some urgent business. I immediately responded. On
getting there I found that thej^ were the proprietors of a newly-invented rifle.
The other gentleman was Mr. Ward Cheney, of Connecticut, recently de-
ceased, well known for his eminence in the silk manufacture, and a gentle-
man of great wealth and high character. One of the ingenious mechanics in
his employ named Spencer had invented a repeating rifle. It had been tested
in various private ways, but it had not received the official sanction of the
Government. They had employed various persons to come to Washington
during the summer of 1881, the first of the war; but these various agents re-
ported, and these gentlemen so reported to me, that what they called a gun-
ring in Washington were so close and were so powerful that they could not
get an opportunity to bring that new arm to the attention of the Secretary of
War, the present venerable Senator from Pennsylvania, and they asked me if
I thought I could do it. That was two years and more before I entered
Congress.
I told them that I thought I could. And going back home and making
preparations I immediately came to Washington, and in a very short time I
had an interview with Secretary Cameron at the War Department. He
looked at the gun, was satisfied there was something in it, and gave an order
to have it tested by the Ordnance Bureau. It was thoroughly tested, and in
the course of tv/o weeks the experiment was so satisfactory that they gave a
preliminary order for 20,000 rifles. It was of course, as every gentleman who
is familiar with the war knows, a most eminent success. It was one of the
wonderful arms of the war: the Spencer rifle.
The company immediately proceeded to erect an armory in Boston, but,
with all that ingenuity and capital could do, they did not produce, as every
gentlemen on this floor who was familiar with the operations of the war
knows, half as many arms as the service wanted. They paid me not an
extravagant but a moderate fee for that service, which I was then as much at
liberty to take as any lawyer or agent on this floor would be in his private
relations at home. I was not in Congress, was not nominated to Congress,
was not here for two years afterward.
The winter afterward, or next spring, Mr. Fisher and Mr. Cheney, both
together, offered me $10,000 stock in the concern, and I took it,
A Member. And paid for it?
318 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr. BLAINE. Yes, of course; and paid for it, and owned, and had the
dividends on it. I made no concealment of it. But I never was at the War
Department about in any shape or form in my life. Now, if the gentleman
from Missouri [Mr. Glovek] wants to investigate that case I will save him
all the trouble. I will just cut that short. If he wants the list of stock-
holders, why they are all private citizens, and very respectable ones, and the
corporation is dissolved, dead, merged in the Winchester Rifle Company. I will
give him all the trail there is to the whole story, and he can strike it and follow
it out. The whole story, that I had so much per gun as a royalty of any
sort, is simply absurd. I was an ordinaiy stockholder, just as a man is in a
bank. A gentleman asks me if I paid for this stock. I tell him yes, I did,
emphatically. The truth is the Department was only too anxious to urge in
every direction to have these guns manufactured.
I take these letters up quite miscellaneously. The next is dated Augusta,
Mame, August 9, 1873:
[Personal.]
Augusta, Maine, August 9, 1872.
Mt Dear Mr. Fisher: On my return home yesterday I found your favor of 6th from
Stonin^on, asking for my notes, $6,000, on account. It seems to me that a partial set-
tlement of our matter would only lead to future trouble, or at all events to a mere post-
ponement of our present difficulties.
I deem it highly desirable that we should have a conclusive and comprehensive settle-
ment, and I have been eager for that these many months.
The account which you stated June 20, 1872, does not correspond precisely with the
reckoning I have made of my indebtedness on the note you hold. You credit me, April
26, 1869, with $12,500 dividend from Spencer Company; but there were two subsequent
dividends, one of $3,750, the other of $5,800, of which no mention is made in your state-
ment, though I received in June, 1870. your check for $2,700 or $2,800, which was a part
of these dividends, I believe. I think my "cash memorandum" of June 25, 1869, for
$2,.500, with which you charge me, represented at the time a part of the dividends; but
being debited with that, I am entitled to a credit of the dividend.
In other words, as I reckon it, there are dividends amounting to $9,550 due me, with
interest since June, 1870, of which I have received only $2,700 or $2,800, entitiing me thus
to a credit of some $7,500.
Besides the cash memorandum January 9, 1864, $600, which with interest amoimts to
$904.10, was obviously included in the consolidated note which was given to represent all
my indebtedness to you and which you repeatedly assiu-ed me would be met and liqui-
dated in good time by Spencer dividends.
You will thus see that we differ materially as to the figures. Of course each of us is
aiming at precisely the facts of the case, and if I am wrong, please correct me. I am
sure that you do not desire me to pay a dollar that is not due, and I am equally sure that
I am more than ready to pay every cent that I owe you.
The Little Rock matter is a perpetual and never-ending embarrassment to me. I am
pressed daily almost to make final settlement with those who still hold the securities— a
settlement I am not able to make until I receive the bonds due on your article of agree-
ment with me. That is to me by far the most urgent and pressing of all the demands
connected with om- matters, and the one which I think in all equity should be first settled,
or certainly settled as soon as any.
If the $0,000 cash is so important to you, I would be glad to assist in raising the same
for you on your notes, using Little Rock bonds as collateral at same rate they are used
in Boston, four for one. I think I could get the money here on four or six months on
these terms. If I had the money myself, I would be glad to advance it to you, but I am
as dry as a contribution-box, borrowing indeed to defray my campaign expenses.
Very sincerely, yours,
J. G. BLAINE.
Warren Fisher, Jr., Esq., Boston.
That is a very important communication to the American people.
The next letter I hold is dated Augusta, Maine, July 3, 1872. The witness
Mulligan said that there was nothing in this about the Northern Pacific Rail-
roads
APPENDIX. 319
Augusta, Maine, July 3, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: I was detained far bej^ond my expectations in New York and
Pennsylvania, being tliere quite a week. I was in Boston on Monday en route home, but
I was so prostrated by the heat that I had no strength or energy to call on you.
It seems to me, as I review and recall our several conferences, that we ought not to
have any trouble in coming to an easy adjustment, as follows: Fh-st, I am ready to fulfill
the memorandum held by you in regard to the Northern Pacific Railroad, as I always
have been; second, you are ready to consider the land bonds in my possession as sur-
rendered in payment of the debt to which they were originally held as collateral; third,
I am ready to pay you the fall amount of cash due you on memoranda held by you pro-
vided you will pay me half the amount of bonds due me on memoranda held by me, the
cash to be paid and the bonds to be dehvered at same time. As to further sale of the
share in Northern Pacific Railroad, that could be determined afterward. I am ready to
do all in my power to obUge you in the matter.
If we can adjusfthe first and second points herein referred to, the third might be left,
if you desire it, to the future.
Hitherto I have made all the propositions of settlement. K this is not acceptable to
you, please submit your views of a fair basis in writing.
Sincerely yoiu-s,
J. G. BLAINE.
Warren Fisher, Jr., Esq.
That letter calls for no special comment. Now, any one who hears this
letter will observe that there was a dispute between the parties that ran over
a vei-y considerable period, and here is a letter in which he asks me to get
him a letter of credit for $10,000 from Jay Cooke & Co., of this city. My
answer, dated Washington, D. C, April 26, 1873, as follows:
Washington, April 26.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: Yours of 24th received. There seems to be one great error of
fact under which you are laboring in regard to my ability to comply with your request
about the $10,(.K)0 letter of credit. I would gladly get it for you if I were able ; but I have
not the means. I have no power of getting a letter of credit from Jay Cooke except by
paying the money for it, and the money I have not got, and have no means of getting it.
You nsk me to do therefore what is simply iviiiossible. Nothing would give me more pleas-
ure than to serve you if I were able; but my losses in the Fort Smith affair have entirely
crippled me and deranged all my finances. You would, I know, be utterly amazed if you
could see the precise experience I have had in that matter. Very bitter, I assure you.
Among other things, I still owe nearly all of the $2.5,000 which I dehvered to Mr. Pratt,
and this is most harassing and embarrassing to me.
If you wiU give me the $76,500 of bonds which I propose to throw off as payment of the
notes which you say I owe you, I will gladly get your ten-thousand-dollar letter of credit;
but if I release those bonds to you as I propose, you can do the same for yourself.
I am at a loss to know what you mean by your repeated phrase that ■*' I have denied
everything.'" What have Idenied? I do not so much as understand what you mean,
and would be glad to have you e:^lain.
You reject the name of Ward Cheney as a friendly referee. Please suggest a name
yourself of some one known to both of us. I mean for you to suggest a name in case
you do not accept my basis of settlement proposed In my last letter preceding this.
Yours, very truly,
J. G. BLAINE.
Warren Fisher, Jr., Esq.
When do you propose to sail for Europe?
Some of these letters were written by the gentleman who sits on my right
and who was my clerk during my Speakership, acting as my amanuensis.
Here is a letter dated April 23, 1872, again showing the accuracy of the
witness Mulligan, who said that it contaiaed no allusion to the IsTorthern
Pacific Railroad:
Washington, D. C, April 22, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: Your brief note received. I do not know what you mean by
my "not mentioning Northern Pacific and denying everything else."
You have my obligation to dehver to you a specified interest in Northern Pacific which
I was to purchase for you, and in which I never had a penny's interest— direct or indi-
320 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
rect. Some months ago you wrote me (twice) declaring that you would not receive the
share, but demanding the return of the money. This was impossible, and I therefore
could do nothing but wait.
Nothing I could write would make my obligation plainer than the memorandum you
hold. Nothing you could write would change my obligation under that memorandum.
The matters between us are all perfectly plain and simple, and I am ready to settle
them all comprehensively and Uberally. I am not willing to settle those that benefit you
and leave to the chances of the future those that benefit me.
I am willing to forego and give up a great deal for the sake of a friendly settlement,
and I retain a copy of this letter as evidence of the spirit of the offer I make. I think,
if we cannot settle ourselves, a friendly reference would be the best channel, and I pro-
pose Mr. Ward Cheney, who stands nearer to you certainly than he does to me. If this
name does not suit you, please suggest one yourself.
Very sincerely, yoiu-s,
J.G.BLAINE.
Wabren Fisher, Jr.
Here is one dated Washington, May 26, 1864.
This correspondence, you will observe, stretches over a considerable march
of time, and this refers to the Spencer Rifle Company:
Washington, May 26, 1864.
My Dear Sir: Your favor received. • I am very glad, all things considered, that the
Government has accepted your proposition to take all your manufacture till 1st Septem-
ber, 1865. It gives a straight and steady business for the company for a good stretch of
time.
In regard to the tax provision you can judge for yourself, as I send herewith a copy of
the bill as reported fi'om the Finance Committee of the Senate and now pending in that
body— see pages 148, 149, where I have marked. In looking over the bill you will please
observe that all words in italic letters are amendments proposed by the Senate Finance
Committee, while all words included in brackets are proposed to be struck out by same
committee.
The provision which you inquire about was not in the original bill, but was an amend-
ment moved from the Ways and Means Committee by Mr. Kasson, of Iowa, to whom I
suggested it. It is just and proper in every sense, and wiU affect a good many interests,
including your company. I am glad to hear such good accounts of your progress in the
affairs of the company, of which I have always been proud to be a member.
Tell Mr. Welles that his brother has been nominated by the Senate for commissary of
subsistence, with rank of captain. He vsiU undoubtedly be confirmed as soon as his case
can be reached. I will advise as soon as it is done.
In haste, yom-s, truly,
J. G. BLAINE.
Warren Fisher, Jr., Esq.
I have looked up the provision which the gentleman from Iowa [Mr,
Kasson] moved, and it was this: that where the Government had contracted
for the deliveiy of a specific article of manufacture, and after the contract
was made with the Government, an additional tax was levied on that article,
the Government should stand the loss, and not the seller. The gentleman
from Iowa understands the point.
Mr. KASSON. I do remember the fact of the amendment.
Mr. BLAINE. It is a very simple matter; in fact all the manufacturing
interests in the United States where contracts were made were interested in
it, and where new tax bills were passed every few months.
The next letter to which I refer was dated Washington, District of Colum-
bia, April 18, 1872.
This is the letter in which MuUigan says and puts down in his abstract
that I admitted the sixty-four-thousand-dollar sale of bonds:
Washington, D. 0., April 18, 1872,
My Dear Mr. Fisher: I answered you very hastily last evening, as you said you
wished an immediate reply; and perhaps in my hurry I did not make myself fuljy
APPENDIX. 321
You have been for some time laboring under a totally erroneous impression in regard
to my results in the Fort Smith matter. The sales of bonds which you spoke of my
making, and which you seem to have thought were for my own benefit, were entirely
otherwise. I did not have the money in my possession forty-eight hours, but paid it over
directly to the parties whom I tried by every means in my power to protect from loss. I
am very sure that you have httle idea of the labors, the losses, the efforts, and the sacri-
fices I have made within the past year to save those innocent persons, who invested on
my request, from personal loss.
And I say to you to-night solemnly that I am immeasurably worse off than if I had
never touched the Fort Smith matter.
The demand you make upon me now is one which I am entirely unable to comply with.
I ainnof do it. It is not in my pomer. You say that " necassity knows no law." That
applies to me as well as to you, and when I have reached the point I am now at I simply
fall back on that law. You are as well aware as I am that the bonds are due me under
the contract. Could I have these, I could adjust many matters not now in my power,
and so long as this and other matters remain unadjusted between us I do not recognize
the equity or the lawfulness of your calling on me for a partial settlement. I am ready
at any moment to make a full, fair, comprehensive settlement with you on the most Ub-
eral terms. I will not be exacting or captious or critical, but am ready and eager to
make a broad and generous adjustment with you, and if we can't agree ourselves, we can
select a mutual friend who can easily compromise all points of difference between us.
You will, I trust, see that I am disposed to meet you in a spirit of friendly cordiality,
and yet with a sense of self-defense that impels me to be frank and expose to you my
pecuniary weakness.
With very kind regards to Mrs. Fisher, I am yours truly,
J. G. BLAINE.
W. FisHEK, Jr., Esq.
I now pass to a letter dated Augusta, Maine, October 4, 1869, but I read
these letters now somewhat in their order. Now, to this letter I ask the
attention of the House. In the March session of 1869, the first one at which
I was Speaker, the extra session of the Forty -first Congress, a land grant in
the State of Arkansas to the Little Rock road was reported. I never remem-
ber to have heard of the road until at the last night of the session, when it
was up here for consideration. The gentleman in Boston with whom I had
relations did not have anything to do with that road for nearly three or four
months after that time. It is in the light of that statement that I desire that
letter read.
In the autumn, six or eight months afterward, I was looking over the
Globe, probably with some little curiosity if not pride, to see the decisions I
had made the first five weeks I was Speaker. I had not imtil then recalled this
decision of mine, and when I came across it all the facts came back to me
fresh, and I wrote this letter:
[Personal.]
Augusta, Maine, October 4, 1869.
My Dear Sir: I spoke to you a short time ago about a point of interest to your railroad
company that occurred at the last session of Congress.
It was on the last night of the session, when the bill renewing the land grant to the
State of Arkansas for the Little Rock road was reached, and Julian, of Indiana, chairman
of the PubUc Lands Committee, and, by right, entitled to the floor, attempted to put on
the bill, as an amendment, the Fremont El Paso scheme— a scheme probably well known
to Mr. Caldwell. The House was thin and the lobby in the Fri^mont interest had the thing
aU set up, and JuUan's amendment was hkely to prevail if brought to a vote. Roots and
the other members from Arkansas who were doing their best for their own biU (to
which there seemed to be no objection) were in despair, for it was well known that the
Senate was hostile to the Fremont scheme, and if the Arkansas bill had gone back to
the Senate with Juhan's amendment the whole thing would have gone on the table and
slept the sleep of death.
In this dilemma Roots came to me to know what on earth he could do under the rules;
for he said it was vital to his constituents that the bill should pass. I told him that
Julian's amendment was entirely out of order, because not germane ; but he had not
sufBcient confidence io his knowledge of the rules to make the point, but he said General
JjOgan was opposed to the Fr6mont scheme, and would probably make the point, I sent
322 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
my page to General Logan with the suggestion, and he at once made the point. I could
not do otherwise than sustain it; and so the biU was freed from the mischievous amend-
ment moved by Julian, and at once passed without objection.
At that time I had never seen Mr. Caldwell, but you can tell him that without knowing
it I did him a great favor.
Sincerely yours,
J. G. BLAINE.
W. Fisher, Jr., Esq.,
84 India /Street, Boston.
The amendment Tef erred to in that letter will be found in the Congressional
Globe of the first session of the Forty-first Congress, page 702. That was
before the Boston persons had ever touched the road.
Mr. Julian. I offer the following as an additional section to the bill.
And then the Clerk read the whole of the El Paso bill.
Mr. Logan. I rise to a question of order, that this amendment is not germane to the
pending bill. The bill is to revive a certain land grant and to extend the time, while
the amendment is another charter for a Pacific raih-oad, authorizing the building of
bridges, granting the right of way and everything else of the sort. I have been in favor
of the pending Arltansas biU, but I do not wish to be made to carry this Pacific railroad
bill. I do not think the amendment is in order.
The Speaker. The Chair sustains the point of order for two reasons. It is expressly
prohibited by the rule that where a land grant is under consideration another grant to a
different company shall be entertained. This is not a specific land grant, but it does give
away the public land of the United States so far as to give the right of way. Again,
by the rules no proposition upon a subject different from that under consideration can be
admitted under color of amendment.
Therefore the amendment was out of order on either ground. If it was a
land grant, of course- it was out of order, because no land grant could be
attached to another ; and if not a land grant, it was out of order, because it
was attempting to introduce a different subject under color of amendment.
Therefore in either way the amendment was excluded.
Mr. FRYE. At the time that ruling was made did you have any interest
whatever in this railroad?
Mr. BLAINE. Never had, and never expected to have; never remem-
bered to have heard of it at that time.
Mr. FRYE. Did you know or expect any personal friend of yours to have
any interest in that road?
Mr. BLAINE. None in the world, not the slightest, never had heard of it.
And I want to say, (and the interruption by my colleague [Mr. Frye] enables
me to do so,) that what I did in that case, and every occupant of the chair will
bear me out in the statement, is what is very frequently done by the Speaker.
It was helping a member in that direction, nothing in it unusual, nothing ex-
traordinary at all. Only by wresting it from its connection and giving it an
evil construction could I be said at that time to have had the slightest possible
interest in this road. But I never remembered that night to have heard of
this road, and it was only three or four months afterward that these Boston
parties themselves, with whom I was interested, took any interest in it. On
the same day I wrote another letter:
ArousTA, October 4, 1869.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: Find inclosed contracts of the parties named in my letter of
yesterday. The remaining contracts will be completed as rapidly as circumstances will
permit.
I inclose you a part of the Congressional Globe of April 9, containing the point to
which I referred at some length in my previous letter of to-day. You will find it of inter-
est to read it over and see what a narrow escape your bill made on that last night of the
APPENDIX. 323
session. Of course it was my plain duty to make the ruling when the point was once
raised. K the Arkansas men had not, however, happened to come to me when at their
wits' end and in despau-, the bill would undoubtedly have been lost, or at least postponed
for a year. I thought the point would interest both you and Caldwell, though occui-ring
before either of you engaged in the enterprise.
I beg you to imderstand that I thoroughly appreciate the courtesy with which you
have treated me in this railroad matter ; but your conduct toward me in business mat-
ters has always been marked by unbounded liberahty in past years, and of course I have
naturally come to expect the same of you now. You urge me to make as much as I fairly
can out of the arrangement into which we have entered. It is natural that I should do
my utmost to this end. I am bothered only by one thing, and that is definite and ex-
pressed arrangement with Mr. Caldwell. I am anxious to acquire the interest he has
promised me, but I do not get a definite understanding with him as I have with you.
I shall be in Boston in a few days and shall then have an opportunity to talk the matter
over fully with you. I am disposed to think that whatever I do with Mr. Caldwell must
really be done through you.
Kind regards to Mrs. Fisher.
Sincerely,
J. G. BLAINE.
W. F., Jr., Esq.
Then ia Jiily I wrote this letter; they began then to speak of the road:
Augusta, Maine, July 2d, 1869.
My Dear Me. Fisher: You ask me if I am satisfied with the offer you make me of a
share in your new railroad enterprise.
Of course I am more than satisfied with the terms of the offer. I think it a most Uberal
proposition.
If I hesitate at all, it is from considerations no way connected with the character of the
offer. Your liberal mode of deaUng with me in all our business transactions of the past
eight years has not passed without my full appreciation. What I wrote you on the 29th
was hitended to bring Caldwell to a definite proposition. That was all.
I go to Boston by same train that carries this letter, and will call at your office to-mor-
row at twelve m. If you don't happen to be in, no matter. Don't put yom-self to any
trouble about it.
Yours,
J. G. B.
W. Fisher, Jr.
Here is a letter which was written just before that:
Augusta, June 29, 1869.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: I thank you for the article from Mr. Lewis. It is good in itself,
and will do good. He writes like a man of large intelligence and comprehension.
Yoiu- offer to admit me to a participation in the new railroad enterprise is in every
respect as generous as I could expect or desire. I thank you very sincerely for it, and in
this connection I wish to make a suggestion of a somewhat selfisn character. It is this:
You spoke of Mr. Caldwell disposing of a share of his interest to me. If he really de-
signs to do so, I wish he would make the proposition definite, so that I could know just
what to depend on. Perhaps if he waits till the full development of the enterprise he
might grow reluctant to part with the share; and I do not by this mean any distrust of
him.
I do not feel that I shall prove a dead-head in the enterprise if I once embark in it. I
see various channels in which I know I can be useful.
Very hastily and sincerely, your friend,
J. G. BLAINE.
Mr. Fisher,
India street, Boston.
Mr. FRYE. I desire to ask my colleague if the trade which is alluded to
there between him and Mr. Caldwell, called a share, or scheme, or something
of that kind, was ever entered into between him and Mr. Caldwell?
Mr. BLAINE. It was not. That was a proposition to sell me a share in
what was called the bed-rock of the road, to let me be interested in the build-
jng of it. That ti-ansaction was never consummated. All that I ever had to
324 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
do with the road was this most unfortunate transaction of my life, pecuniarily
and otherwise, in buying and selling some of the bonds.
Washington, May 14, 1870.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: I think on the whole I had better not insist on the $40,000 addi-
tional bonds at same rate. My engagement was not absolute, and I can back out of it
with honor. I would rather do this than seem to be exacting or indehcate.
Besides, I have always felt that Mr. Caldwell manifested the most gentlemanly spirit
toward me, and designed to treat me handsomely in the end. On the whole, therefore. I
shall be better off perhaps to let things remain as they are. But I will follow your judg-
ment in this matter if I can find what it is.
Very hastily,
"W. Fisher, :
J. G. BLAINE.
Augusta, October 1, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: I am domg all in my power to expedite and hasten the delivery
of that stock. The delay has been occasioned by circumstances wholly beyond my con-
trol. But I shall reach a conclusion within a few days and make the formal delivery
then. It will be an immense relief to get it off my hands, I assure you; far greater than
it will be for you to receive it.
You must have strangely misunderstood Mr. CaldweU in regard to his paying those
notes. He has paid me in all just $6,000, leaving $19,000 due, which I am carrying here
at 8 and 8i per cent, interest, and which embarrasses me beyond all imagination. I do
not really "know which way to turn for relief, I am so pressed and hampered. The Little
Rock and Fort Smith matter has been a sore experience to me, and if you and Mr. Cald-
well between you cannot pay me the $19^000 of borrowed money, I don't know what I
shall do. Politically I am charged with bemg a wealthy man. Personally and pecuniarily
I am laboring under the most fearful embarrassments, and the greatest of all these em-
barrassments is the $19,000 which I handed over under your orders, and not one dollar of
which I have received. Of the $2.5,000 original debt Mr. CaldweU has paid $0,000, and
$6,000 only. Can you not give me some hope of relief in this matter? It is cruel beyond
measure to leave me so exposed and so suffering.
You know my profound regard for you and my faith in you. We have been friends too
long and too intimately to allow a shade between us now.
Yours truly,
J. G. BLAINE.
That will surprise a great many people.
Augusta, Maine, October 4, 1871.
My Dear Mr. Fisher: You must have strangely misunderstood Mr. CaldweU's state-
ment in regard to his paying me all but $2,500 of the $2.5,000 borrowed money which I
loaned the company tnrough him and you last January. Mr. Caldwell paid me in June
$3500, and in July $3,500 more, accepting at same time a draft for $^500, July 10. ten
days, which draft remains unpaid. I have therefore received but $6,000 from Mr. Cald-
well, leaving $19,000 (besides interest) due me to-day.
For this $19,000 I am indi^^dually held, and, considering all the circumstances, I think
you and Mr. Caldwell should regard it as an honorary debt, and you should not allow me
to suffer for money which I raised under the peculiar circumstances attending this. It is
a singularly hard and oppressive case, the features and facts of which are familiar to you
and Mr. Caldwell.
And then, again, I have been used with positive cruelty in regard to the bonds.
I have yom- positive written contract to deliver me $125,000 land bonds and $38,500 first-
mortgage bonds. The money due you on the contract was all paid nearly a year and a
half ago. Of this whole amount of bonds due me I have received but $50,000 land grants,
leaving $75,000 of those and $32,500 first mortgage still due. I know you are pressed and
in trouble, and I don't wish to be too exacting; rather I wish to be vei-y liberal in settle-
ment.
Now, I make this offer: Pay me the cash due on the borrowed money account; call it
$19,000 in round nmnbers, and $40,000 land bonds, and we will call it square.
Mr. Caldwell has repeatedly asstu-ed me that I should be paid all the bonds due me
imder contracts with you, and outside of that $20,000 due me from him. I now voluntar-
ily offer to make a very large reduction if I can have the matter closed.
I am without doubt the only person who has paid money for bonds without receiving
them, and I think you will agree with me that I have fared pretty roughly. It would be
an immense, immeasurable relief to me if I could receive the money in time to pay off
the indebtedness here within the next six weeks, so that I can ^o to Washington this wii}T
APPENDIX, 325
ter with the load taken off toy shoulders. It was placed there in the fullest faith and
confldence that you and Mr. Caldwell would not let me suffer. I still cling to that faith
and confidence. You will much obUge me by showing this letter to Mr. Caldwell.
Yours, very truly,
J. G. BLAINE.
W. FisHEB, Jr., Esq., Boston.
I will inform gentlemen for their benefit, especially those who are so eager
to search the records of the circuit court at Little Rock, Arkansas, that it was
this $25,000 which I recovered through the courts of Arkansas; I think it
was the first of May this spring.
WASHiNGfTON, D. C, April 13, 1872.
My Dear Mb. Fisher: I have your favor of the 12th. I am not prepared to pay any
money just now in any direction, being so cramped and pressed that I am absolutely un-
able to do so. Please send me a copy of the notes of mine held by you with indorsed
payments thereon.
1 would have been glad, instead of a demand upon me for payment of notes, if you had
proposed a general settlement of all matters between us that remain imadjusted. There
IS still due to me on articles of agreement between us $70,000 in land bonds and $31,000 in
first-mortgage bonds, making $101,000 in all. For these bonds the money was paid you
nearly three years ago, and every other pai-ty agreeing to take bonds on same basis has
long since received its full quota. I alone am left hopeless and helpless, so far as I can
see. Then there is the $;:a5,000 which I borrowed and paid over, under your orders, to
Mr. Pratt, for which I have received no pay. Mr. Caldwell paid me a small fraction of
the amount as I supposed, but he now says the money he paid me must be credited to
another account on which he was my debtor, and that he denies all responsibiUty, past,
present, and ruture, on the $35,000, for payment of which I must, he says, look solely to
you. I only know that I delivered the money to Blr. Pratt on your written order. I still
owe the money in Maine, and am carrying the greater part of it at 8 per cent.— nearljr
$2,000 per anmun steady draw on my resources, which are slender enough without this
burden.
Still further, I left with Mr. MuUiken, January, 1671, $6,000 in land-grant bonds Union
Pacific Railroad, to be exchanged for a Uke amount of Little Rock land bonds vith Mr.
CaklwfH, he to change back when I desired. Mr. Caldwell declined to take them, and
you took them_ without any negotiation with me or any authority from me in regard to
the matter. Y ou placed the Little Rock land bonds in the envelope, and I have the origi-
nal envelope with Mr. MulUken's indorsement thereon of the fact of the delivery to you.
Now, I do not complain of your taking the bonds, provided you hold yourself bound to
replace them. The worst of the whole matter was that the bonds were only a part
mine, and I have had to make good the others to the original owner.
There are other matters to which I would refer; but my letter is already long.
I do not think, under the circumstances, it would be quite wise or kind in you to place
any note or notes of mine that may happen to be in your possession in the hands of third
parties as collateral.
In any event I ask as a simple favor that you will not do so, and that you will send me
by return maU a copy of aU obhgations of mine in your possession.
Mrs. Blaine joihs me in very kind regards to Mrs. Fisher and in the expression of the
hope that you may have a pleasant and profitable tour m Europe.
Smcerely yours,
J. G. BLAINE.
Wahren Fisheb, Jr., Esq.
There is mentioned in this letter $6,000 of land-grant bonds of the Union
Pacific Railroad for which I stood as only part owner ; they were only in
part mine. As I have started out to make a personal explanation, I want to
make a full explanation in regard to this matter. Those bonds were not
mine except in this sense : In 1869 a lady who is a member of my family and
whose financial affairs I have looked after for many years — many gentlemen
will know to whom I refer without my being more explicit — bought on the
recommendation of Mr. Samuel Hooper $6,000 in land-grant bonds of the
Union Pacific Railroad as they were issued in 1869. She got them on what
was called the stockholder's basis ; I think it was a very favorable basis on
which they distributed these bonds. These $6,000 of land-grant bonds were
obtained in that way.
326' BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINS.
In 1871 the Union Pacific Railroad Company broke down, and these bohds
fell so that they were worth about forty cents on the dollar. She was anxious
to make herself safe ; and I had so much confidence in the Fort Smith land
bonds that I proposed to her to make an exchange. The six bonds were in
my possession ; and I had previously advanced money to her for certain pur-
poses and held a part of these bonds as security for that advance. The bonds
in that sense, and in that sense only, were mine — that they were security for
the loan which I had made. They were all literally hers ; they were all sold
finally on her account— not one of them for me. I make this statement in
order to be perfectly fair.
I have now read those fifteen letters, the whole of them. The House and
the country now know all there is in them. They are dated and they corre-
spond precisely with Mulligan's memorandum, which I have here. I keep
this memorandum as a protection to myself ; for it is very valuable as show-
ing the identity of the letters in every respect.
Mr. GLOVER. Will the gentleman allow that memorandum to be read?
Mr. BLAINE. Wait just a moment. There was a contract also among
these — the same that was put in evidence by Mulligan — of the parties in
Maine who bought Little Rock bonds. I only refer to that because it is the
same in every respect with that which has already been made public. He
also testified to something as being among Mr. Fisher's papers about the
Northern Pacific Railroad. That makes eighteen papers. I will put them
all in ; let them all go.
Mr. HALE. Does the exhibit which the gentleman has made cover every
paper of every kind whatever that came from Mulligan ?
Mr. BLAINE. Every solitary scrap and " scrimption," as the children
say. (These papers will be appended in a foot-note to these remarks.)
Mr. GLOVER. Will the gentleman from Maine now respond to the re-
quest I made, that the memorandimi of Mr. Mulligan be read at the Clerk's
desk?
Mr. BLAINE. O, yes ; I shall be glad to have it read.
The Clerk read as follows :
No. 1. Oct. 4, '69, relating to debate in the House and Blaine's ruling, and favors he was
to receive from C. for pressing bill extending time on first 20 miles.
Mr. BLAINE. This is what Mr. Mulligan puts down as the substance of
the letters.
The Clerk continued the reading, as follows :
No. 2. Oct. 4. '69, on same subject.
No. 3. June 27, '69, thanking Fisher for admitting him to participation in L. & F. R.
R., and urging him to make call; say how much he would give him, and for what. He
knew he would be no dead-head, but would render valuable assistance.
No. 4. July 25, '69, on the same subject.
No. 5. Sept 5, '69. contract with different parties.
No. 6. Contract with Northern Pacific.
No. 7. May 14, '70, Caldwell designs to treat him handsomely in the end.
No. 8. Oct. 24, '71, Fisher to Blaine, lu-gmg settlement of N. P. R. account, $25,000.
Mr. BLAINE. There was no such letter in the package. The letter he ■
speaks of seems to have been a letter from Mr. Fisher to myself. There was
no such letter in the package ; and the numbers he gives do not call for it.
There are fifteen letters and three pieces of paper. At any rate that was not
a letter from me.
The Clerk continued the reading as follows :
Appendix. 32?
No. 9. Oct. 4, '71, Blaine admits that there was $6,000 paid on the $25,000 loan and to
have received $50,000 from Fisher.
No. 10. Oct. !, < 1, admits bein^ paid $6,000 on account of loan.
Mr. Blaine sold sundry parties $l-.i5,000 in first-mortgage bonds, and common stock
$125,000, preferred stock $125,000 ; for wliich was paid by them $135,000 cash; and Mr.
Blaine was to receive for Ms share of the transaction $125,000 in land-grant bonds, and
$32,500 in flrst-mortgage bonds. Total, $157,500.
Now. calling land and first-mortgage bonds equal in value, and stock valueless for
$125,000 plus $157,000 equals $282,000 bonds; cash $25,000 equals 44t*ft per cent.
Mr. Blatne also sold sundry parties $63,000 bonds and $56,000 stock for cash $43,150.
$15,150 less cash paid Mr. Blaine for his share in the transaction.
$28,000 net cash received by Mr. Fisher for the above $63,000 bonds and $56,000 stock,
equal 44g| per cent, for the bonds, calhng stock nothing.
Mr. Blaine, in final settlement, Sept. 21. 1872. claimed only $101,000 bonds due Dec.
letter, (Dec. 3, '72;) he previously received $61,000, and was to look to Caldwell for bal-
ance.
Sept. 21, '72, received $40,000.
No. 11. April 13. 1872, saying there was $101,000 bonds due him, and claiming that there
was due hun on Union Pacific bonds exchanged $6,000, and admittmg that there were
some of them his own.
No. 12. Apl. 18, 1872, admits the $64,000 sale bonds, and paid the money over in forty-
eight hours to Maine parties.
Mr. BLAINE. See the abstract that he makes :
Admits the $64,000 sale bonds, and paid the money over in forty-eight hours to Maine
There is not a word said about it in the letter.
The Clerk continued and concluded the reading, as follows :
No. 13. Aug. 9, '72, as dry financially as a contribution-box, and borrowing money to
defray his campaign expenses.
No. 14. Aug. 81, '73, about settlement.
No. 15. May 26, '64, says he was a partner m the Spencer Eifle Co.
Mr. BLAINE. Now, Mr. Speaker, I would be glad to have any gentle-
man who desires to be frank examine these letters, as they will be printed in
the Record, and see the obvious intent and animus of Mulligan in making up
this memorandum ; I will not further comment on it. I desire to call atten-
tion to the fact that these are the letters for which I was ready to commit
" suicide," and do sundry and divers other desperate things in order to
acquire them.
I do not wish to detain the House, but I have one or two more observations
to make. The specilic charge that went to the committee of which the hon-
orable gentleman from Virginia is chairman, so far as it affects me, was
whether 1 was a party in interest to the sixty-four-thousand-dollar transaction;
and I submit that up to this time there has not been one particle of proof
before the committee sustaining that charge. Gentlemen have said what they
had heard somebody else say, and generally when that somebody else was
brought on the stand it appeared that he did not say it at all. Colonel
Thomas A. Scott swore veiy positively and distinctly under the most rigid
cross-examination all about it. Let me call attention to that letter of mine
which Mulligan says refers to that. I ask your attention, gentlemen, as
closely as if you were a jury while I show the absurdity of that statement.
It is in evidence that with the exception of a small fraction the bonds which
were sold to parties in Maine were first-mortgaged bonds. It is in evidence
over and over again that the bonds which went to the Union Pacific road
were land-grant bonds. Therefore it is a moral impossibility the bonds taken
up to Maine should have gone to the Union Pacific Railroad. They were
of different series, different kinds, different colors, everything different, aa
S2S BIOGRAPHY OF fiON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
different as if not issued within a thousand miles of each other. So on its
face it is shown it could not be so.
There has not been, I say, one positive piece of testimony in any directicii.
They sent to Arkansas to get some hearsay about bonds. They sent to Bos-
ton to get some hearsay. Mulligan was contradicted by Fisher, and Atkins
and Scott swore directly against him. Morton, of Morton, Bliss & Co.,
never heard my name in the matter. Carnegee, who negotiated the note,
never heard my name in that connection. Rollins said it was one of the
intangible rumors he spoke of as floating in the air. Gentlemen who have
lived any time in Washington need not be told that intangible mmors get
considerable circulation here; and if a man is to be held accountable before
the bar of public opinion for intangible rumors, who in the House will stand?
Now, gentlemen, those letters I have read were picked out of correspond-
ence extending over fifteen years. The man did his worst, the very worst he
could, out of the most intimate business correspondence of my life. I ask
gentlemen if any of you, and I ask it with some feeling, can stand a severer
scrutiny of or more rigid investigation into your private correspondence?
That was the worst he could do.
There is one piece of testimony wanting. There is but one thing to close
the complete circle of evidence. There is but one Avitness whom I could not
have, to whom the Judiciary Committee, taking into account the great and
intimate connection he had with the transaction, was asked to send a cable
dispatch, and I ask the gentleman from Kentucky if that dispatch was sent
to him?
Mr. FRYE. Who?
Mr. BLAINE. To Josiah Caldwell.
Mr. KNOTT. I will reply to the gentleman that Judge Hunton and
myself have both endeavored to get Mr. Caldwell's address and have not yet
got it.
Mr. BLAINE. Has the gentleman from Kentucky received a dispatch
from Caldwell?
Mr. KNOTT. I will explain that directly.
Mr. BLAINE. I want a categorical answer.
Mr. KNOTT. I have received a dispatch purporting to be from Mr.
Caldwell.
Mr. BLAINE. You did?
Mr. KNOTT. How did you know I got it?
Mr. BLAINE. When did you get it? I want the gentleman from Ken-
tucky to answer when he got it.
Mr. KNOTT. Answer'my question first.
Mr. BLAINE. I never heard of it until yesterday.
Mr. KNOTT. How did you hear it?
Mr. BLAINE. I heard you got a dispatch last Thursday morning at eight
o'clock from Josiah Caldwell completely and absolutely exonerating me from
this charge, and you have suppressed it. [Protracted applause upon the floor
and in the galleries.] I want the gentleman to answer. [After a pause.]
Does the gentleman from Kentucky decline to answer?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend until order is
restored. The doorkeepers will remove from the Hall those not entitled to
the floor ; and the gallenes will be cleared if this applause is repeated. So
long as the present occupant is in the chair that rule will be enforced.
Mr. BLAINE. Mr. Speaker, I ask to offer the following resolution as a
matter of privilege in this connection.
Appendix. 329
The SPEAKER 'pro tempore. The gentleman from Maine will suspend
until order is restored. The Chair is not responsible for this disorder, and
the doorkeepers have failed to keep out men not authorized to come into the
Hall. There are in this Hall those not members double the number of mem-
bers. The doorkeepers will enforce the rules of the House. Those who are
not entitled to the floor will leave it. Members of the House will be seated.
[After a pause.] The gentleman from Maine will proceed.
Mr. BLAINE. I want the gentleman from Kentucky to answer me, or
rather to answer the House, that question.
Mr. KNOTT. I will answer that when I get ready. Go on with your
speech.
Mr. BLAINE. I desire to offer the following resolution.
The Clerk read as follows:
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report forthwith to
the House whether in acting under the resolution of the House of May S, relative to the
purchase by the Pacific Raih-oad Company of seventy-five land-grant bonds of the
Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, it has sent any telegram to one Josiah Caldwell,
in Europe, and received a reply thereto. And, if so, to report said telegram and reply,
with the date when said reply was received, and the reasons why the same has been
Mr. BLAINE. After that add, " or whether they have heard from Josiah
Caldwell in any way." Just add those words, "and what." Give it to me
and I will modify it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will read the modification of the
resolution.
The Clerk read as follows:
And whether they have heard from the said Josiah Caldwell, in any other way, and to
what effect.
Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman from Kentucky in responding probably,
I think, from what he said, intended to convey the idea I had some illegiti-
mate knowledge of how that dispatch was obtained. I have had no com-
mimication with Josiah Caldwell. I have had no means of knowing from
the telegraph office whether the telegram was received. But I tell the gen-
tleman from Kentucky that murder vsdll out.
Mr. GLOVER. That is trac.
Mr. BLAINE. And secrets will leak. And I tell the gentleman now,
and I am prepared to state to this House, that at eight o'clock on last Thurs-
day morning, or thereabouts, the gentleman from Kentucky received and
receipted for a message addressed to him from Josiah Caldwell, in London,
entirely corroborating and substantiating the statements of Thomas A. Scott,
which he had just read in the New York papers, and entirely exculpating me
from the charges which I am bound to believe from the suppression of that
report the gentleman is anxious to fasten upon me.
I call the previous question on that resolution.
[Protracted applause from the floor and the galleries,]
Foot-note.— Papers I, J, and K, f otind with the letters surrendered by Mulligan, are
hereto appended. The papers relating to the Northern Pacific road are not remembered
by Mr. Blaine; the handwriting is not known to him, and he can recall no connectioa
with them in any respect. They are, however, quite imimportan^,
330
B10GKA1>HY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Cost of J of 1 share, $466,667, is $58,333
I of $416,667, to receive in bonds, is at par $58,083, at 90 c, would be 46,875
11,458
for which you will get J of 541,234 stock, which is $67,654; and when the road is finished
you will get J of 3,416,708, which is 427,088 in stock, beside your interest in the Land
Company, which is proportionate. Bonds at par would make the above amount of stock
cost about $6,250.
J.
"Whereas, under certain agreements with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company,
dated May 20, 1869, and January 1, 1870, Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co. have become fiscal
apgents for the negotiations of the securities of said company upon the terms therein
stated; and whereas, vmder said agreements, Jay Cooke & Co. become possessed of twelve
of the twenty -four interests constituting the company and representing its franchises;
and whereas Jay Cooke & Co, for the purpose of fiu-nishing fvmds under their agree-
ments as fiscal agents, for the construction and eqtiipment of the road from its intersec-
tion with the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad to the Red River, near the mouth
of the Cheyenne, a distance of about two hundred and twenty -five miles, forming a com-
plete road from Lake Superior to the Red River, have offered to the subscribers for the
first five millions of dollars of the first-mortgage bonds of the company the following
The subscribers to purchase of Jay Cooke & Co. the said bonds bearing 7.3 gold inter-
est at par, $5,000,000, and twelve interests in the company at $50,000 each, $600,000,
amoxmtingin all to $5,600,000; or, say, twelve shares of $466,667 each to be paid for in
installments, estending through about fifteen months, as the funds may be required by
the comyany, for which each share shall receive as follows:
Bonds, one-twelfth of $5,000,000 $416,667
Preliminary issue of stock $93,400
Twenty per cent, stock commissions on bonds 83,334
476,734
and $40,500 stock upon completion of each section of twenty-five nules of the road.
Thus upon completion to Red River, estimating the distance at two hundred and
twenty-five miles, (nine sections of twenty-five miles each,) each share will have received
nine times $40,500, equal to $364,500, in addition to previously stated $176,734, say $541,-
234 stock; and this proportionate issue continuing with the progress of the road, upon
completion to the Pacific each share will have received in aU $416,667 bonds and $3,416,-
708 stock, (the fractions in all cases being adjusted in even figures,) and the entire five
miUions of bonds will thus cany with them a total of $41,000,500 stock.
It is designed in addition to organize a private land company for the purchase and
sale of desirable town sites and other valuable lands, from which large profits are-antici-
pated; the interests in such company to beheld in the same proportion with the subscrip-
tions to the present agreement and the fimds required to be assessed correspondingly
from time to time, of course, with the consent of the parties.
Upon the foregoing terms, we, the vmdersigned, subscribe the shares and portions of
shares set opposite our names, to be paid for in installments as called, the bonds to carry
interest from date of payments.
It is also hereby agreed by the subscribers whose names are hereby annexed that they
will leave with Jay Cooke & Co. their proxies on all stock acquired under the terms of
this agreement, and that they will not dispose of any of the first mortgage bonds sub-
scribed for imless with the consent of said Jay Cooke & Co., or imtil such sales shall
cease to interfere with the plans of the fiscal agents for providing of necessary funds for
the completion and equipment of the whole line of road.
Boston, September 5, 1869.
Whereas I have this day entered into agreements with A. & P. Cobum, and simdry
other parties resident in Maine, to deUver to them certain specified amounts of the com-
mon stock, preferred stock, and first-mortgage bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith
Railroad Company, upon said parties paying to me the aggregate sum of $130,000, which
several agreements are witnessed by J. G. Blaine and delivered to said parties by said
Blaine:
Now this agreement witnesses, that upon the due fulfillment of the several contracts re-
ferred to, by the jjayment of the $130,000, and for other valuable considerations, tiie re-
APPENDIX.
33l
ceipt of which is acknowledged, I hereby agree to deliver to J. G. Blaine, or order, as the
same come into my hands as assignee of the contract for building the Little Rock and
Fort Smith Railroad, the following securities, namely: Of the land bonds 7 per cents.
$130,000; of the first-mortgage bonds, gold, sixes, $33,500. And these $130,000 of land
bonds and $32,500 of first-mortgage bonds thus agreed to be deUvered to said Blaine are
over and above the securities agreed to be deUvered by Warren Fisher, jr., assignee to
the parties making the contracts, which parties, with the several amounts to be paid by
each and the securities to be received by each, are named in a memorandum on the next
page of this sheet.
And it is further agreed, that in the event of any one of said parties f aiUng to pay the
amount stipulated, then the amount of securities to be delivered to said Blaine under
this agreement shall be reduced in the same proportion that the deficit of payment bears
to the aggregate amount agreed to be paid.
WARREN FISHER, Jr., Assignee.
Witness:
Alvan R. Flanders.
[Stamp.]
Parties contracting with Warren Fisher, jr., assignee, as referred to in pre-
ceding agreement.
To Pay.
To Receive.
Cash.
Common
stock.
Preferred
stock.
Fu^t-
$50,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
$50,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
$50,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
$50,000
10,000
10,000
10,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
3. Anson P Morrill .
6 C B Hazeltine
7. N. P.Monroe
8. A. W. Johnson
9 H H Johnson
11. Lot M. Morrill
5 000
12. A. B. Farwell
5,000
13. Joseph H. Williams
14. Charles M. Bailey
5,000
5000
130,000
130,000
130,000
130,000
In addition to the above there are to be delivered to J. G. Blaine's order of the land
bonds in 7s, currency, $130,000; first-mortgage bonds, 6s, gold, $3a,500.
Mr. HOLMAN. I ask that the resolution be again read.
The resolution was again read.
Mr. KNOTT rose.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman from Maine insist on
the demand for the previous question?
Mr. BLAINE. If the gentleman from Kentucky desires to speak, I do
not insist on it. But I do not yield the floor.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Maine, not yielding
the floor, insists on the demand for the previous question.
Mr. HOLMAN. Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that the resolution is only
in order on a motion to suspend the rules.
Mr. BLAINE. O, no; I hold most decidedly, and I am sure the honor-
able occupant of the chair will sustain me in so holding, that the resolution
embraces a question of the highest privilege.
§32 BIOGKAPHY Of HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr. HOLMAN. I am making no point against the resolution.
Mr. BLAINE. I hope the gentleman will not take the ground that this is
hot a privileged resolution.
Mr. HOLSiAN. I am not making the point; but it seems to me there is
the same right to call for a report on any matter which may have been re-
ferred to that committee.
Mr. BLAINE. No, sir. I say that this involves the good faith and the
honor of the Judiciarv Committee.
Mr. HOLMAN. Ah! that is a different matter. Mr. Speaker, I rise to
make an inquiry.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Indiana vdll state it.
Mr. HOLIMAN. The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Knott] rose, as I
imderstood, with a desire to submit some explanation. If the previous ques-
tion should now be seconded would that exclude the gentleman from Ken-
tucky from that privilege?
Mr. BLAINE. I am quite willing that the gentleman from Kentucky
should be heard. I do not want to stop him, but I wish a vote on the pre-
vious question.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Maine insists on a
vote on his motion for the previous question.
Mr. BLAINE. I do not insist on that now. I insist on the right to call
the previous question, but not to the exclusion of the gentleman from Ken-
tucky from speaking.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. If the gentleman from Maine docs not yield
the tioor the Chair has no other alternative than to put the question on the
motion for the previous question.
Mr. BLAINE. Then I will yield the floor.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman's hour has expired.
Mr. BLAINE. I know that the honorable Speaker will of course recog-
nize me at the proper time hereafter to move the previous question.
The SPEAKER pi^o tempore. The Chair will decide that when the time
comes.
Mr. HOLMAN. The gentleman from Maine must see the fairness of al-
lowing the gentleman from Kentucky to make an explanation.
Mr. BLAINE. I do; and I withdraw for the present the motion for the
previous question, knowing that the Chair wiU recognize me hereafter to re-
new the motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair does not decide that now.
Mr. BLAINE. The Chair could not do otherwise.
Mr. PHILIPS, of Missouri. I reserve the right to make the point of order
on the competency of the resolution at this time.
Mr. GARFIELD. Too late.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. It is not too late. Does the gentlemen
from Missouri make that point of order?
Mr. PHILLIPS, of Missouri. I do.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. It has been repeatedly decided by Speaker
Kerb that a resolution following an explanation of this kind is in order.
That decision has been made several times this session,
Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. I desire to say a word. When I rose a while
ago my motive might have been misundei-stood. I intended to say if the
question asked by the gentleman from Maine was a proper question it ought
to be answered, and I intended to demand myself that it should be answered.
Mr. BLAINE. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky.
APPENDIX. 333
Mr. JO!NES, of Kentucky. The question, if a proper one, ought to be
answered, and I have no doubt it will be when the gentleman from Ken-
tucky [Mr. Knott] sees fit.
Mr. KNOTT. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.
Mr. HUNTON. I claim the indulgence of the House for a very brief
period.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair begs to state to the House that
the doorkeepers report to him that it is utterly impossible to clear this Hall
unless the Capitol police be called in. The doorkeepers are instructed to call
in the police, if necessary, and clear the Hall of outsiders.
Mr. ATKINS. Has the Sergeant-at-Arms any duties in this matter?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Sergeant-at-Arms is bound by the mles
to assist in that duty. The officers of the House will also clear the cloak-
room of those who are not entitled to the privileges of the Hall.
After a pause of some minutes,
Mr. KAS80N said: I ask for the regular order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The regular order is that the House be in
order,
Mr. KASSON. The House is in more disorder than when the Chair sus-
pended proceedings.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will take care that the regular
order is called at the proper time. Gentlemen who are in the cloak-room and
not entitled to the privileges of the Hall will retire. The Chair has given
the order and he intends that it shall be enforced; but the order has not yet
been enforced, and the Chair is utterly powerless unless the doorkeepers assist.
There are many persons on the fioor who are here without authority and who
refuse to go out. [After a pause, duiing which order in the Hall was re-
stored.] The gentleman from Vii"ginia will proceed.
Mr. HUNTON. I desire, Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the subcommittee
to whom allusion has been frequently made in the statement of the gentleman
from Maine, to detain the House to make a short statement of the matters to
which he has alluded, and I trust that in doing this I shall speak as a mem-
ber of the committee, and tell calmly, dispassionately, fairly, what has oc-
curred before that subcommittee of which the gentleman from Maine com-
plains.
I beg leave to say in advance that the House has witnessed this morning a
remarkable, not to say an unexampled scene, a scene which may have its
example in the history of legislation, but if so, it has escaped my observation
and reading on the subject.
During the present session of this House two resolutions were adopted,
each of which ordered an investigation, each of which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary of this House, and each of which was referred to
a subcommittee consisting of Mr. Ashe of North Carolina, Mr. Lawrence of
Ohio, and myself as chairman of the committee, and before the committee
has finished the taking of testimony, before that committee has reached a
conclusion, an effort is made by the gentleman supposed to be mostly con-
cerned in these investigations to take the consideration of these questions from
the organ of the House and report upon them in person. I need not remind
the House what sort of a report would come from that committee if it were
allowed to be made by the gentleman from Maine. But I say that after this
House has ordered an investigation and has committed that investigation to a
committee of the House it is not only unexampled, but entirely agauast legisla-
tive proceedings for a gentleman to rise and undertake to anticipate what the
334 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
conclusion of that committee shall be and to state what the action of that
committee has been.
Now, Mr. Speaker, in regard to the action of this committee, I will en-
deavor to follow some of the points made by the gentleman from Maine, and
if I state any of the facts wrong I hope either of the gentlemen of that com-
mittee will correct me, because I desire to state nothing but what is accu-
rately true in the statement I shall submit to the House.
The lirst point made by the gentleman from Maine was that it very soon
was discovered that the resolution introduced by the gentleman from Mas-
sachusetts [Mr. Tarbox] was nimed at him, although his name was not
mentioned in the resolution, and that he learned this from the proceedings of
the subcommittee.
I beg to say to the House that the subcommittee and its chainnan first
learned from the gentleman from Maine that he was the man aimed at. He
does not forget that after the resolution of Mr. Tarbox was referred to the
subcommittee at his instance I had an interview with him in the committee-
room of the Committee of Ways and Means, and in that interview the gen-
tleman from Maine spoke of if as a resolution affecting him. Not only that,
but he expressed himself satislicd and pleased with the personnel of the sub-
committee, although two of them icere confederates. And at the instance of
the gentleman from Maine a day was appointed upon which the subcommit-
tee was to enter upon its duties. And yet he tells this House that he learned
from the subcommittee that he was the party to be investigated, and not the
Union Pacific Railroad, as set out in the resolution of Mr. Tarbox. The
first I heard either from a member of the House or a member of the commit-
tee on the subject was from the gentleman from ]\[aine [Mr. Blaine] himself,
that the resolution referred to him, and he wanted the investigation com-
menced on a given day, and proceeded with, with as much dispatch as pos-
sible from that day. I told the gentleman from Maine that the investigation
I should undertake should be as kindly as I could make it, and it should be
as fairly conducted as I could conduct it, but as thorough as it could possibly
be.
I acceded to his wish that the investigation should not commence tmtil a
day not very distant in the future, I think about ten days off. The reason
why he did not want the investigation to begin at once was that he wanted to
go to Philadelphia during what is known as the Centennial week, and did
not want the investigation to commence until the following week. This
request was granted with a great deal of pleasure and on the very day indi-
cated by him, the very day he requested the investigation to begin, it was
begun, and from that day to this there has been no hour that the committee
could devote to this investigation that has not been devoted to it, except when
the gentleman himself prevented it, and I say that more than two weeks'
time has been lost to this committee because of the conduct of the gentleman
from Maine ; I do not mean to attach any blame to him ; the first was the
postponement vmtil the week after the Centennial, and the next was a week
of indisposition on his part, and even this morning I rose at the hour of four
o'clock to come to this city, a distance of sixty miles, to renew the investiga-
tion and get through with it as soon as possible. The gentleman from Maine
and his friends were not present, and the investigation had to be postponed.
And yet he tells the House that the investigation is " prolonged, prolonged,
prolonged," and seeks to make the impression on the House that it is the pur-
pose of the committee to prolong this investigation for some sinister purpose.
Why he might just as well have said that we desired to postpone it until after
APPENDIX. 335
the 14th of June, and every member of the committee will bear me witness
to every word I say, that the committee worked in season and out of season ;
sitting on one occasion nearly the entire day in order to get through with this
investigation before the 14th day of June, and every delay that has occurred,
every day when the committee was not able to be in session, it was either be-
cause the gentleman from Maine was absent or requested an adjournment.
I win not say "every day," for it is possible that there were one or two days
when we had a meeting of the full committee, or something of that kind.
But the delay has been at his instance, has been caused by him ; for this sub-
committee has worked as (I say) no other subcommittee of this House has
ever worked. So much for the prolonging of this investigation.
I had no desire, God knows, to prolong it. I had no desire to enter upon
it ; but it was a duty imposed upon me by the House, and 1 intended to dis-
charge that duty, as I have endeavored to discharge every such duty here,
with fairness, impartiality, and a due regard to my duty to the House of
Representatives.
But the gentleman says that when we had been examining witnesses under
what is known as the Tar box resolution, to his surprise he found that I
claimed, or the committee claimed, that they had jurisdiction to investigate
certain Pacific railroads, and that he was to be involved in the investigation
of those Pacific railroads as well as under the Tarbox resolution.
Now, the gentleman cannot have forgotten what occurred in that connec-
tion ; and, not having forgotten it, it was his duty in fairness to have stated
it to this House. He knows that this resolution of Mr. Luttrell, of Cali-
fornia, directing an investigation into all the Pacific railroads that had
received subsidies from the Government, was alluded to almost from the start
of the investigation by the subcommittee ; therefore he could not have been
surprised in the least to learn in the last day or two that there was to be an
investigation under the Luttrell resolution.
I desire to state specifically what occurred on this subject a day or two ago
in the committee-room. I was asked, " Is there to be an investigation under
this Luttrell resolution?" I said to Mr. Blaine, "The resolution will re-
quire an investigation that will take months, at the hands of this committee.
You have expressed a desire that aU the investigation touching you shaU be
done speedily and concluded as soon as possible. If you desire it, I will not
take up any other road except the Northern Pacific and the Kansas Pacific,
because as to these two railroads your name has been mentioned as involved
in an unpleasant way ; and for your sake, that you may get a report before
the tedious examinations of the affairs of all these Pacific railroads, we will
take up first the matter which touches you, if you desire it." Mr. Blaine
said that he desired us to go on.
Yet he is very much surprised after all these things occurred in the com-
mittee-room. He is surprised to find that an investigation is to be under-
taken by this subcommittee which involves an examination in these specific
railroads, and it is to be prolonged, prolonged, prolonged, when we agreed
for his sake and at his instance to skip all the other inquiries under the Lut-
trell resolution, vmtil we had disposed of those which seemed to attach to Mr.
Blaine.
Mr. FRYE. Will my colleague on the Committee on the Judiciary [Mr.
Hunton] allow me to ask him a question in relation to that which he has
just mentioned?
Mr. HUNTON. Certainly.
Mr, FRYE, Did not Mr. Blaine, in that last conversation, object that
336 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
under the resolution the committee had no jurisdiction of a stock transaction
between two Individuals?
Mr. HUNTON. Is that your only question?
Mr. FRYE. Yes.
Mr. HUNTON. I will answer it. I think it very likely he did. And I
think also that if we had left the question of jurisdiction to Mr. Blaine
there would have been a great many questions ruled out. [Laughter.] But
the committee had to decide the question of jurisdiction for themselves, and
they decided that they had jurisdiction to go on.
Mr. FRYE. I will ask you—
Mr. HUNTON. I do not desire to be interrupted any further, if the gen-
tleman will excuse me.
Mr. FRYE. Very well.
Mr. HUNTON. I say that there was no ground for the surprise of the
gentleman, and instead of bad faith on the part of this committee in under-
taking this investigation into the aifairs of the Pacific railroads, it was our
boundeu duty as the organ of the House to undertake it, and to do what we
could, whether we got through this session or not. And for the purpose of
bringing to a close the matters which seemed to bear upon Mr. Blaine — and
this Hoase and the country knows that there have been publications which
drew from him certainly once if not twice a personal explanation on this floor
— for the purpose of getting at them speedily and getting a report into this
House as soon as we could, I said : "If you wish, Mr. Blaine, we wiU not
go into all these other roads, but take up the Northern Pacific Road and the
Kansas Pacific Road, because there is connected with those two roads a
charge against you." Now, if there is anything vmfair in that I cannot see
it, and I guarantee that this House cannot see it.
Then about these letters ; and that I believe is the gist of his complaint
before this House. In order to set that question before the House properly,
I desire to state it as it arose in the committee-room on the evidence. And I
beg leave to state here, before I go from this point, that every -witness that
has been examined before the Committee, whether his testimony was made
in favor of Mr. Blaine or against him, was summoned by the committee
without any suggestion from Mr. Blaine or any of his friends. He did on
one occasion send me a memorandum of witnesses to summon, and my reply
on the back of the memorandum was that every one of those witnesses had
already been summoned (or were ordered to be summoned) by the Sergeant-at-
Arms. Therefore, every witness who has appeared before the committee,
under either resolution, was summoned by the committee without any sug-
gestion from Mr. Blaine or any of his friends.
Among these witnesses appeared Mr. James Mulligan, of the city of Bos-
ton, a gentleman whose character is unimpeached and, according to the testi-
mony, unimpeachable. Mr. Fisher was put on the stand to state some things
differently from Mr. Mulligan, and he was asked the question : " What sort
of a man is James Mulligan?" He was put upon the stand by Mr. Blaine,
and, after his examination-in-chief had ended, he was asked this question.
His reply was substantially, if not literally : "He is as good as any man I
ever knew, or the best man I ever knew." Mr. Atkins, another witness in-
troduced for the same purpose, said substantially the same thing of Mr. Mul-
ligan. I desire to say to this House in the beginning that Mr. Mulligan stood
before that committee with a reputation for truth and veracity equal to that
of any gentleman on this floor. What may be his character I toaow not ; I
never saw him imtil he appeared in the committee-room.
APPENDIX. 337
Mr. FRYE. Will my colleague on the committee pardon me one mo-
ment?
Mr. HUNTON. Certainly.
Mr. FRYE. From the gentleman's statement in relation to these questions
as to the character of Mr. Mulligan, the impression might go out that Mr.
Blaine asked those questions. Will the gentleman please state whether or
not he, as chairman of the committee, asked them?
Mr. HUNTON I did, sir.
Mr. FRYE. That is all.
Mr. HUNTON. And the witness answered just as I have stated. I
wanted to know what sort of a witness I was dealing with. I put the ques-
tion for the information of the committee. This witness, who had been
summoned from Boston, was put upon the stand, and I did not know what
he would testify to. If anybody had ever informed me what Mr. Mulligan's
testimony would be or what it would relate to I had forgotten it entirely. In
the course of his examination the first day Mr. Mulligan was testifying very
quietly; there was no excitement in the committee-room at all when he hap-
pened to mention that he had in his possession certain letters written by Mr.
Blaine to Warren Fisher, jr. The mention of these letters seemed to have
a remarkable effect upon Mr. Blaine, for in a moment or two afterward he
whispered to Mr. Lawtience, the republican member of that committee,
" Move an adjournment." It so happened that I heard the suggestion. Mr.
Lawrence got up with great solemnity on his countenance and said, " Mr.
Chairman, I am very sick, and I hope the committee will adjourn."
[Laughter.]
Mr. LAWRENCE rose.
Mr. HUNTOjST. I hope the gentleman is better to-day.
Mr. LAWRENCE. Will my colleague on the committee allow me to ask
a question or make a statement?
Mr. HUNTON. Certainly.
Mr. LAWRENCE. I will ask my colleague whether, when I went into
the committee-room on that morning, the first thing I said to him before I
had spoken to anybody else, was not that I had been exceedingly sick during
the night? [Laughter.] I had been to Baltimore on the day before; and
though I had not indulged in anything that would necessarily make me sick,
yet I was extremely sick, so much so that it was with difficulty I sat there at
all. I said simply what was true when I said that I was extremely unwell;
and as the gentleman knows I have been quite unwell ever since. [Laughter.]
Mr. FRYE. What time was it when it was proposed to adjourn?
Mr. LAWRENCE. It was then half past twelve o'clock, half an hour
beyond the time when the committee usually adjourns to attend the sittings
of the House. Now, my friend says that he heard the remark of Mr.
Blaine asking me to move to adjourn. It was not necessary that I should
state what Mr. Blaine had said to me.
Mr. HUNTON. Nobody asked you to do so.
Mr. LAWRENCE. The gentleman says he heard it; but it was not neces-
sary that I should state every groimd for asking the adjournment.
Mr. HUNTON. Certainly not.
Mr. LAWRENCE. It was sufficient that I deemed it necessary to ask an
adjournment. [Laughter.]
Mr. HUNTON. The gentleman has stated the matter exactly as it qc-.
curred. He did come in in the morning sick,
Mr. LAWRENCE. Yes, sir,
338 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr, HTJNTON- But he went to work in a most vigorous style for two
hours.
Mr. LAWRENCE. But I became exhausted.
Mr. HUNTON. When those letters were mentioned the gentleman be-
came sick, and somebody else sicker. [Laughter.] And the motion to
adjourn was made at his suggestion.
Mr. LAWRENCE. It ought to be said in justice to Mr. Blalne that so
far as anything said by him to me could indicate his purpose, the motion to
adjourn suggested by him was not caused by any fear of what was going on.
Mr. HUNTON. I never intimated such a thing. The gentleman is rais-
ing men of straw just to knock them over. But I do say that after these
letters were mentioned incidentally by Mr. Mulligan, the reference being
brought out without a question, (for I had not the remotest conception that
he had any such letters in his possession,) the gentleman from Ohio did rise,
at the suggestion of the gentleman from Maine, and move an adjournment ;
and he put it upon the ground that he was sick, and we had been sitting over
our time anyhow. These are the exact facts. Now, why the motion to ad-
journ was suggested to the gentleman, and whether he was absolutely taken
sicker at that moment, I cannot tell and do not propose to inquire ; but an
adjournment was had. We did not like to keep our colleague there in
misery and distress ; on account of his sickness and because we had sat over
the hour which we were allowed to sit, an adjournment was had. The com-
mittee adjourned until the next morning at ten o'clock ; and when we met,
James Mulligan was put upon the stand again to complete his examination,
which had been intemipted by the motion to adjourn. He was asked a
question which did not look to the letters, which had no reference to them
whatever. He said: " Mr. Chairman, before I proceed to answer that ques-
tion, I desire to make a personal explanation painful to myself."
I will commence at the beginning of his personal explanation. I will state
it substantially as he did, and if I err in any important particular I trust I will
be corrected. Upon the evening of his first arrival in the city of Washington,
before I knew he was in the city, he and Warren Fisher were waited on by
Mr. Blaine. They were invited to the house of Mr. Blaine. Mr. Mul-
ligan said, " Mr. Blaine I decline to go to yo\ir house; I do not want to
talk about what I have been brought here for. I desire to take the stand to-
morrow untrammeled by conversation of any kind with anybody." Warren
Fisher went to the house of Mr. Blaine. Twice Mr. Blaine sent a mes-
senger down to induce Mulligan to come to his house. Mr. Mulligan still
declined, and presently IVIr. Blaine and Warren Fisher came into the hotel
where Mulligan stopped in the city of Washington, (the Riggs House.) Mr.
Mulligan was in the barber-shop undergoing l£e pleasant operation of shav-
ing, or about to undergo it, and Mr. Blaine followed him into the barber-
shop and commenced to entreat and earnestly to request that Mulligan would
give up those letters which Blaine had addressed to Warren Fisher. Mul-
ligan declined to do it.
Mr. FRYE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman—
A Member. I object to interruption.
Mr. FRYE. I ask my colleague of the committee if I may interrupt him?
IVIr. HTJNTON. Yes, you may.
Mr. FRYE. The gentleman is now stating evidence, and I desire him to
♦ be very careful, because, as I remember it, there is no testimony whatever
showing or tending to show that Mr. Blaine, in a barber-shop, in the pres-
ence of the barber, entreated Mulligan for those letters.
APPENDIX. 339
Mr. HUNTON. It matters not where he entreated him. I am under the
impression it was there, but I am not certain.
Mr. FRYE. The letters were not read in any barber-shop.
Mr. HUNTON. I will take him out of the barber-shop. It does not
matter in the least where the entreaty was made. Mr. Blaine entreated
him. I give you now the substance of the language of the witness. He
entreated him with tears in his eyes, going down on his knees, or almost on
his knees
Mr. FRYE. In the barber-shop?
Mr. HUNTON. I did not say in the barber-shop. I do not care where it
was. It was in his room, I believe; but he made this entreaty. The vntness
said, "with tears in his eyes, almost, if not quite, on his knees;" " ' if you do
not deliver those letters to me, I am ruined and my family disgraced.' " Of
course I mean to be understood here that the witness meant that Blaine's
family would be disgraced through the ruin of Mr. Blaine. He also threat-
ened to commit suicide. Mr. Mulligan refused to deliver the letters. He
said: " Mr. Blaine, I see by the evening paper that my testimony given to
the committee to-day is to be assailed" — to use his own word, " impugned"
— "and in case my character and testimony arc assailed, I want those letters
to justify me in my testimony before the committee." Mr. Blaine asked :
" Do you suppose I am going to assail you?" The witness said: " If you do
not assail me others may, and my character is too dear to me not to vindicate
it if I can." Mr. Blaine then tried politics with him, and he asked the
witness: "Are you content with your station?" To this Mulligan said he
would like to improve it if he could. Mr. Blaine said: " Would you like
a political oflSce?" Mulligan replied he did not like politics, and did not
care about it. Mr. Blaine then asked how he would like a foreign consul-
ship? He said he would not like it; and after that Blaine said: " Let me
see the letters to pemse them." The witness objected, but he said finally,
upon a pledge of honor from Mr. Blaine that he would return the letters,
they were given him to read. He read them over once or twice, and returned
them to the witness. Again he made an effort to obtain those letters, and
Mr. Mulligan left the company and went into his room. In a short time Mr.
Blaine followed him into his room, and this scene occurred between the
parties without any witnesses: Mr. Blaine again endeavored to get possession
of the letters. The witness again declined to deliver them. The witness
says that Mr. Blaine said: " I want to reread those letters again, and I want
to have them for that purpose."
Mr. FRYE. I desire to ask my colleague a question there.
Mr. HUNTON. Very well.
Mr. FRYE. I want to call his attention
Mr. HUNTON. I trust you vdll, if I misstated the testimony.
Mr. FRYE. The impression I received from the statement just made is
that this effort and threat to commit suicide was in the presence of witnesses.
Mr. HUNTON. No; I did not say it was.
Mr. FRYE. It was not?
Mr. HUNTON. It was not.
Mr. FRYE. Do not you know he testified it was to himself?
Mr. HUNTON. I think he did ; that it was to himself alone. He asked
the witness to let him see the letters again; and the witness said that on a like
pledge of honor to return them to him he delivered these letters over a second
time to Mr. Blaine to read and return them; and when Mr. Blaine had
read them and kept them a short time he refused to deliver them. The wit-
340 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
ness became excited, demanded his letters, and followed Mr. Blaine into
the room of Mr. Atkins on the floor below, and there demanded his letters
from Mr. Blaine; and he not only demanded his letters, but he demanded
the private memorandum which the witness himself had made to use on hm
examination before the committee to refresh his memory. This was taken
by Mr, Blaine, and this also he refused to deliver.
Mr. FRYE. Will the gentleman pardon me again for interrupting him?
Mr. HUNTON. Certainly.
Mr. FEYE. Do I understand the gentleman as stating that Mr. Mulligan
testified that he demanded in addition to the letters the private memorandum?
Mr. HUNTON. No, sir. He said that Mr. Blaine took it when the
letters were handed to him. The memorandum was with the letters when
they were handed to him.
Mr. FRYE. It was in the bundle ?
Mr. HUNTON. That may be.
Mr. FRYE. Was it so?
Mr. HUNTON. I think it was. And when Mr. Blaine refused to de-
liver the letters he refused also to deliver the memorandum.
Now this was the statement made by the witness before the committee
charged with the investigation of these subjects. Who has a right to com-
plain? The gentleman from Maine or the committee? Who has a right to
complain? The gentleman from Maine or this House? Here was a vdtness
summoned from Boston. He did not appear as a volunteer in the case. He
came under the compulsory process of the House, and was entitled to the pro-
tection of the House as long as he was in the city of Washington under his
subpoena. Is the authority of this House in bringing witnesses here to testify to
subject-matters of inquiry which the House has thought proper to make to
be protected or not? It is a question which concerns this House more than
the subcommittee of which I have the honor to be chairman.
But the gentleman from Maine says that these were his letters. Why, sir,
it is an utter mistake as to the law of the case — an utter, complete mistake.
I say to this House, without the fear of successful refutation, that according
to the well-settled principles of law those letters belonged to Mr. Warren
Fisher from the time he received them from the mail until he delivered them
over to Mr. Mulligan, and Mr. Mulligan was entitled to the possession and
ownership of those letters from that peiiod.
In regard to how Mr. Mulligan got possession of those letters, he says, and
Mr. Fisher corroborates his statement, that those letters were taken possession
of and brought to the city of Washington by James Mulligan with the full
consent and approbation of Warren Fisher. There was no surreptitious
possession of these letters on the part of the witness, but they were brought
here with the knowledge and consent of Warren Fisher, and witness brought
them for the purpose of sustaining his testimony on the stand if it became
necessary to use them. And I say, Mr. Speaker, that from the very moment
Warren Fisher received those letters from Mr. Blaine, Mr. Blaine ceased to
have any control of them. He had no more right to the possession or con-
trol of those letters than he has to my watch now in my pocket or any other
piece of property which I may ovra. Some of the authorities go so far as to
say that the publication of private correspondence may be enjoined by the
writer or autiior of the correspondence if it is attempted on the part of the
holder to use that correspondence to the detriment of the writer's property.
But until that is attempted or threatened the writer has no right to interfere
^th any sort of use that the recipient of those letters chooses to make of them,
Appen&ix. 84l
I will not go further into this question, because my friend, the chairman of
the committee, the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. Kjstott,] is fortified with
authorities on this subject and will state the law more clearly than I can. But
if Mr. Blaine — as I have said the law declares — was not entitled to the pos-
session and had no right to the letters, I ask how he can justify his course be-
fore this House in taking the letters imder a promise on his honor to return
them and then withhold them.
Well, the subcommittee thought that, as the letters were obtained by Mr.
Blaine under circumstances such as I have detailed, it was right and proper
that they should be given up to the committee or returned to the witness, the
rightful owner of these letters; and when the demand was made upon Mr.
Blaine for the production of them he asked for time to consult counsel. His
demand was cheerfully granted, and an adjournment took place from that
day until ten o'clock the next morning. At ten o'clock the next morning we
heard from Mr. Blaine that he had not gotten through with the consultation;
that owing to peculiar cu'cumstances he had not been able to get the two coun-
sel together the preceding night. We gave him until twelve o'clock. Twelve
o'clock arrived ; and he stUl was not ready. At two o'clock he came before
the subcommittee with the opinion of Judge Black and Mr. Carpenter stating
that we had no right to demand these letters; that they were private property
pertaining to the private business of Mr. Blaine; and that we had no right
to demand them, and Mr. Blaine should resist the demand.
Now, the committee may have very high respect for the authority of Judge
Black and Mr. Carpenter, but they were investigating a question for the
House, and not according to the rules prescribed by Mr. Carpenter and Judge
Black. They did not choose that Mr. Carpenter and Judge Black should de-
cide a question which the House had ordered them to decide.
Mr. FRYE. Will the gentleman allow me a question?
Mr. HUNTON. Yes, sir.
Mr. FRYE. Did not Mr. Mulligan on three different occasions testify
that there was not more than one letter which touched however remotely any
subject under investigation, whether the Union Pacific Railroad, the bonds
sold the company by Tom Scott, or the Northern Pacific, or the Central Pacific,
or all of the rest of those roads named in that resolution? Did he not testify
in answer to your interrogatories at three different times that only one letter
however remotely touched any matter which the subcommittee were investi-
gating?
Mr. HUNT ON. No, sir; he did not so testify, according to my recol-
lection. I vdll tell you what he did testify.
Mr. FRYE. Well, su-.
Mr. HUNTON. He testified on one or two or perhaps on three occasions
that he did not think that there were but two letters in the batch which bore
upon the subject-matter of inquiry before the committee, one in regard to the
Northern Pacific and the other in regard to the Union Pacific.
Mr. FRYE. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUNTON. That is what he said, but the conunittee thought that as
the letters had been obtained in the manner in which Mr. Blaine had obtained
these letters, it was not only their right but their duty to determine the ques-
tion for themselves whether the letters were pertinent to the subject-matter
of inquiry or not.
Mr. FRYE. One other question. The gentleman says in response to my
question that there were two letters, one relating to the Union and the other
to the Northern Pacific Railroad. On the day before yesterday, when you
342 Biography of hon. james g. blaine.
were pursuing the Northern Pacific inquiry, did he not swear distinctly that
there was not one letter which related at all to the Northern Pacific?
Mr. HUNTON. He mentioned a statement which related to it.
Mr. FRYE. A statement but not a letter, and that statement not in Mr.
Blaine's handwriting.
Mr. HUNTON. No, sir.
Mr. FRYE. Did he not state that the statement was not in Mr. Blaine's
handwriting?
Mr. HUNTON. I stated so.
Mr. FRYE. One more question.
Mr. HUNTON. I yield for one more.
Mr. FRYE. Was there, when this witness was subpoenaed to Washington,
any subpoma duces tecum at all.
Mr. HUNTON. No, sir.
Mr. FRYE. That is all.
Mr. HUNTON. I do not see what difference it makes whether there was
a subpoena duces tecum or not. The object of a subposna duces tecum is to re-
quire the witness to bring papers. If he brings them without a subpoena du-
ces tecum, the object is attained, because the letters are there; and the witness
had a right to bring them without a sui>poe7ia duces tecum for the purpose for
which he indicated he did bring them.
Now I say, sir, that when these facts came out that there was a letter and a
statement, which I believe was stated by Mr. Blaine to have been written
by his clerk — when we found from the witness that one of these letters in
that statement did relate to the subject-matter under inquuy, that when the
solicitude was manifested to obtain possession of the letters, I ask the House
whether it was not only the right but the duty of the subcommittee to demand
at the hands of Mr. Blaine the restoration of these letters to the witness or
their production to the committee? The committee told Mr. Blaine, "If
you say these letters are your private papers, surrender them to the com-
mittee; you did not get possession of them in a manner which the committee
think rightful, whatever may be your opinion about it, and we desire to see
those letters, not to be made public, not to be published as a part of the pro-
ceedings of the committee, not to be given to the correspondents of news-
papers to be spread throughout the length and breadth of the land, but to be
inspected by the committee in private and used only when found pertinent."
Mr. FRYE. Mr. Speaker
Mr. HUNTON. I thought you said that you were only going to ask one
question more?
Mr. FRYE. Ah! at that time, allow me to ask if Mr. Blaine did not
ask the chairman of the subcommittee
Mr. HUNTON. I am coming to that, if the gentleman will let me. I do
not mean to omit an important particular; but let me state the case in my
own way.
Mr. FRYE. Very well.
Mr. HUNTON. I stated that the committee ought to inspect those letters
in private, and that wherever there was one that did not refer to the subject-
matter of this investigation, either under the Lutti-ell resolution or the Tarbox
resolution, those letters which were found to be private should not be made
public.
Mr. FRYE. That is not what my inquiry was about.
Mr. HUNTON. I am coming to your inquiry; do not be impatient, if you
please.
AfPENDi^; 343
Mr. FRYE. Very well. , ^ ,
Mr. HUNTON. I know what the gentlemaii wants to ask me: if Mr.
Blaine did not invite ine to his house to read these letters.
Mr. FRYE. That was not it.
Mr. HUNTON. What was it ?
Mr. FRYE. I know Mr. Blaine did invite you, and told you that
yoQ might read all the letters. But I want to ask you if Mr. Blaine did
not ask the subcommittee whether, if he produced these letters and gave them
to them, they should be examined privately and only those put on record that
related to the case, and if Mr. Hunton, the chairman of the subcommittee,
did not say no, he would not examine them privately?
Mr. HUNTON. No, sir.
Mr. FRYE. You say you did not say that?
Mr. HUNTON. I say I refused individually to examine them privately;
Mr. FRYE. Was not that inquiry addressed to you when the subcom-
mittee was in session?
Mr. HUNTON. Yes, sir.
Mr. FRYE. Then I understand you to say that you understood that in-
quiry to be addressed to you privately 2
Mr. HUNTON. I understood it so.
Mr. FRYE. I understood it differently.
Mr. HUNTON. I understood it as I have stated, and I do not think I am
mistaken. I said to Mr. Blaine over and over again, "Mr. Blaine, I do
not want to see your correspondence either public or private. I have no
right to road it except as a committee-man ; and these two gentlemen who sit
on either side of me have the same right I have. " I did not mean to receive
at the hands of Mr. Blaine any letters or any papers that my colleagues ou
the committee could not see and inspect with me.
When I had the honor of an invitation to the gentleman's house to read
these letters, I replied to it in the same way : " Mr. Blaine, I have no right
to go to your house as a private citizen and read your correspondence ; if I
have the right to look at it at all, it is as a member and as the chairman of
this committee ; and if I have no right to look at it in that way, I have no
right to look at it at all, and will not do it."
I believe he has stated on this floor to-day, and if I am wrong I hope I may
be corrected, that forty-four gentlemen have read these papers. My colleague
on the committee, the gentleman from North Carolina, [Mr. Ashe,] reminds
me that when Mr. Blaine refused to produce these letters, he or one -of the
members of the committee asked that the memorandum of the witness should
be surrendered to the committee that we might examine it and see whether
these letters were public and bore upon the subject of this investigation, or
were private. That was refused.
When I refused to go to the gentleman's house and read these letters, I did
it because I did not want, and God knows I do not want now, to pry into
his private correspondence ; but I thought it was my duty as a member of the
committee, and my duty to this House, to demand at his hands the produc-
tion of letters and memorandum obtained in the manner in which I have
stated. Now it is for this House to determine whether I did right or -vvrong,
whether the committee did right or wrong. If I did wrong I did it in pur-
suance of what I thought was my duty to this House to investigate thorough-
ly, and I trust impartially, the subject-matters of inquiry addressed by the
House to the Judiciary Committee. If I have erred it has been an error of
the judgment, and I say to-day that it is a job I never fancied.
^44 Biography of hon. james g. BtAiNii.
Mr. BLAINE. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a question?
3Hr. HUNTON. Yes, sir.
Mr. BLAINE. Does the gentleman know of a dispatch received from
Josiah Caldwell in London?
Mr. HUNTON. My friend, the chairman of the Committee on the Judi-
ciary, [Mr. KJNOTT,] will reply to you in full on that subject.
Mr BLAINE. I ask the gentleman if he knows
Mr. HUNTON. I do not mean to answer a question addressed properly
to the chairman of the committee.
Mr. BLAINE. But I address it to the chairman with whom I have been
dealing. I ask the gentleman who is the chainnan of the subcommittee to
state to this House whether on Thursday morning last the chainnan of the
full committee, Mr. Knott, of Kentucky, did not come to the committee-
room and call the gentleman from Virginia out, and then or at some other
time acquaint him with that fact?
Mr. HUNTON. Now you are done.
Mr. BLAINE. I do not know ; it depends upon your answer.
Mr. HUNTON. You are done, unless I choose to yield to you again.
Mr. BLAINE. I ask you that question.
Mr. HUNTON. And I answer you that if my friend from Kentucky [Mr,
Knott] does not answer you fully I will.
Mr. BLAINE. Ah, that is not what
Mr. HUNTON. I will not yield to the gentleman any further.
Mr. BLAINE. WiU the gentleman yield on another point?
Mr. HUNTON. Yes.
Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman will pardon me for a moment ; I will give
him more of my time in exchange. The gentleman has commented with an
attempt at severity upon the fact that I saw these witnesses before they testi-
fied. Has it not been the habit of the gentleman from Virginia to see wit-
nesses before they testified?
Mr. HUNTON. Not my habit, sir ; I have seen several.
Mr. BLAINE. I have received this letter which I wish to read :
Washington, D. C, May 23, 1876.
Dear Sm: I arrived here last night to give my testimony in the ease concerning your-
self before the Judiciary Committee. I was summoned to the committee-room at ten
o'clock this morning and was soriy to find the investigation postponed until to-morrow
on account of your illness. I shall endeavor to call and pay my respects this evening.
I was greatly taken by smT)rise at being taken aside by Mr. Hunton and somewhat
closely interrogated privately as to the points of the testimony I should be able to give
against you. All his inquiries seemed to be made with an animus, and the thorough
questioning he gave me ia this inf onnal manner astonished me beyond measure. I had
no idea that congressional investigations were conducted in this way. If they are they
cease to be fair and honorable and degenerate into prosecutions and then into persecutions.
I learned after leaving Mr. Hunton that he has been pursuing this course with other
witnesses who are presumed to have some testimony to give against you. Mr. Httnton's
inquiries were not merely general, but were, it seemed to me, about as minute as they
could well be, and put with an apparent desire to have every fact stated in a manner
that would inculpate you.
I have felt that I was in honor bound to communicate this to you as early as possible
for yoiu- own protection.
I am, very truly yours,
A. P. ROBINSON.
Hon. J. G. Blaine.
He came that evening and had some conversation with me ; and when the
gentleman asked if he had seen me, he supposed it was in reference to
the testimony. He did not come to tell me what he could testify to, but
APPENDIX. 345
Mr. HUNTO'N'. I did not give way for a speech,
Mr. BLAINE. I have made speech enough.
Mr. HUNTON. The animus of that witness is shown by his letter more
tnan mine is shown by it. I do not deny, I never have denied, that I have
talked with some half a dozen witnesses.
Mr. BLAINE. But he said it was understood you " coached " the witness;
that is the phrase he used.
Mr. HUNTON. I say that if he or any other man says that I xmdertook to
"post" the witness or to " coach" him, or intimates by any other technical
term which I may not understand that there has been an attempt on my part
to influence his testimony, it is false, absolutely false.
Now I confess that I had talked to these witnesses ; but never, never have
I attempted to influence their testimony in the slightest degree. My object
in talking to the witnesses was to learn how to examine them ; I thought it
my right and my duty.
Mr. BLAINE. That is just what Mr. Robinson says — that the object was
to get the strong points against me.
Mr. HUNTON. I did not give way to the gentleman. I beg him to re-
collect that I have the floor, and not to attempt to take it from me until I
yield to him.
I want him to recollect also that I was not under investigation ; I was not
interested in the result ; and though I may have talked to witnesses before
their examination, was that as bad as for the gentleman from Maine, who was
interested in the result, to take them to his house? I say here upon my per-
sonal responsibility that not once have I attempted to influence the testimony
of a witness summoned before me in any investigation ordered by this
House. Why, sir, the gentleman knows that a witness in his examination in
the open committee-room stated, " In my conversation with you, Mr. Hun-
ton, this statement occurred." I never attempted to conceal the fact that on
several occasions — probably four or five, it may be less or it may be more — I
did talk with witnesses, that I might know under which resolution their tes-
timony came ; that I might know how to bring out the facts in the possession
of the vsitness. If that is wrong, Mr. Speaker, it is an error of judgment on
my part. I caimot see it.
Now, these are the facts in this case ; and I beg the House to bear in mind
that they have committed these investigations to the hands of a committee ;
and whfle that committee is proceeding with its investigation the gentleman
from Maine, who supposes that he is involved in this investigation, under-
takes to forestall the conclusions of that committee, and make his own state-
ment to the House of the result of that investigation. Mr. Speaker, if this
practice is to be observed in the House, let all references to committees be dis-
continued ; and whenever there is an inquiry here which may possibly in-
volve a member, let that member get up on the floor and make his statement;
let that be received as the report of the committee ; let it be adopted, and thus
let the matter end. If that is not to be the practice, let this committee go on
with its investigation. If the testimony does not implicate Mr. Blaine, I
undertake to say that the committee will not only cheerfully and promptly,
but with pleasure report that fact to the House. If, on the other hand, the
testimony shall involve him in the charges which are under consideration by
the committee, then rest assured that I, as one of the members of the com-
mittee, mean to report the facts to the House and the CQiiclusions to be drawij
from these facts.
Mr. KNOTT obtained the floor,
346 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will read to those who will listen
the rule as to those entitled to the privilege of admission to the floor.
The Clerk read as follows :
No person except members of the Senate, their Secretary, heads of Departments, the
President's private secretai-y, foreign ministers, the governor for the time being of any
State, Senators and Representatives elect, judges of the Supreme Court of the United
States and of the Court of Claims, and such persons as have by name received the thanks
of Congress shall be admitted within the hall of the House of Representatives or any of
the rooms upon the same floor or leading into the same; provided th£tt ex-members of
Congress who are not tuterested in any claim pending before Congress, and shall so reg-
ister themselves, may also be admitted within the hail of the House; and no persons ex-
cept those herein specified shall at any time be admitted to the floor of the House.
The SPEAKER pro Umpore. The Chair will state that numbers of per-
sons on the floor have defied the officers of the House in remaining and force
has been required to put them outside of the Chamber. The Chair will also
state that it is the duty of the Doorkeeper and the Sergeant-at-Arms to en-
force this rule ; and in order that gentlemen may conduct the public business
the Chair states that this rule will be enforced, if necessary, by the police be-
longing to the Capitol. The gentleman from Kentucky will proceed.
Mr. KNOTT, Mr. Speaker, within the last two hours I have listened to
imputations upon myself upon this floor which, coming from a different
source or elsewhere, I might, perhaps, answer very differently from the man-
ner in which I shall atteinpt to answer them now. Those who are intimately
acquainted with me know that I am the last man in the world to seek a per-
sonal altercation, and I assure the House that of all men in the world the
gentleman from Maine [Mr. Blaine] is the last man vsdth whom I would seek
such a conflict. He is entirely too immense in his proportions for me to
presume to attack.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk imder his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Personal controversy seems to be his forte, and whenever he is engaged in
a conflict of that kind on this floor the gentleman reminds me of Homer's
description of Diomede:
Dire was the clang and dreadful from afar,
Was armed Tydides rushing to the war.
No; the gentleman, as my old friend Jim Johnson would say, is habitually
and entirely " too pompious and uzurpious" for me to seek a contest with.
[Laughter.] T\yo-thirds of the time when he is in the House he does not
seem to realize whether he is in the Speaker's chair or on the floor, and to a
stranger it would be an insoluble enigma.
The gentleman quite imnecessarily, as I shall show, has dragged me into
this personal matter of his own. In the flrst place, he insinuates that from
some unworthy motive, I as chauTnan of the Committee on the Judiciary,
appointed upon the subcommittee which has charge of this investigation the
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Hunton] and the gentleman from North
Carolina, [Mr. Ashe.] Well, in answer to that I have to say, first, that
either of those gentlemen is his peer in any sense of the word, and, in jwint
of honor, it is no disparagement to the gentleman from Maine to say they are
both his superiors. [Hisses OQ the republican side of the House.] That is
APPENDIX.
347
all right. There are but three animals in this world that hiss: vipers, geese,
and fools. Hiss on! [Laughter and applause.]
In the second place this sahcommitt^e was, as I remarked a while ago,
selected long before there was any insinuation, public or private that I knew
of, that the gentleman from Maine was in any manner implicated in any of
the alleged fraudulent transactions on the part of any of these railroad corpo-
rations, and it did seem to me, when the gentleman flung his imputation at
me, as a little strange that he could ascribe any motive to me under the cir-
cumstances, even granting the gentleman from Vu'ginia and the gentleman
from North Carolina were his personal enemies.
I repeat, sir, it does seem a little remarkable to me that you cannot touch
one of these railroad companies but what the gentleman from Maine squeals.
[Laughter.] Yes, sir, and I have no doubt it struck Mr. Harrison as a little
remarkable, when that seventy -five-thousand-dollar bond transaction was men-
tioned in a meeting of directors of the Union Pacific Eailroad, that the treas-
urer should say: " Do not say anything about that; it involves Blaine."
[Renewed laughter.]
I wUl say furthermore, Mr. Speaker, that when this subcommittee was
raised, long before I had any intimation that Mr. Blaine was Involved in
any manner in the railroad companies to be investigated, I went to his par-
ticular friend and colleague and asked him to take a position on that subcom-
mittee, which he declined. So much for the appointment of the subcom-
mittee.
JSTow as to the celebrated Mulligan letters
Mr. FRYE. I should like to ask the gentleman a question. I suppose
the gentleman refeiTed to me.
IVIr. KNOTT. I referred to you, sir.
Mr. FRYE. I presume if that is so — I have no recollection about it, but
I have no reason to question the gentleman's word in the matter — if that
was so, as a matter of course it was to take the place occupied by Mr.
Lavtrence.
Mr. KNOTT. Certainly.
Mr. FRYE. It was not to take the place occupied by the gentleman from
Virginia or the gentleman from North Carolina?
Mr. KNOTT. Of course not.
Now with regard to the correspondence which seems to have brought up
this attack by the gentleman from Maine upon the Judiciary Committee so
far as I have had anything to do with that, I will proceed to state it. The
facts were laid before the committee that Mr. Mulligan had been summoned
here to give testimony touching the subject-matters referred to the subcom-
mittee; that he had appeared before the subcommittee and informed them
upon his arrival he had been approached by Mr. Blaine for a private inter-
view, which he declined; that Mr. Blaine had asked him to show certain
letters which were in his possession — lawfully in his possession — placed there
by the recipient of those letters, Mr. Fisher, vdth his permission to the witness
to make whatever use of them he might see proper; that he surrendered those
letters to Mr. Blaine upon the personal promise of Mr. Blaine that he
would return them to him after he had inspected them, which Mr. Blaine
had refused to do; and that thereupon the subcommittee asked the advice of
the committee as to the com-se they were to pursue. While the discussion of
that matter was pending the challenge was thrown out by the gentleman's
friends, which has been thrown out by the gentleman himself here to-day,
t'aat he should be brought before the bar of the House and compelled to pro-
348 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
duce those letters. I then remarked as I now remark, if the gentleman
desires to join the noble army of martyrs", he must volunteer as he has done.
I will never act as conscripting officer to get him a position in that glorious
band. [Laughter.]
More than that, the gentleman insinuates that it is the settled purpose of
the Judiciary Committee to do something or other that may, peradventm*e,
prevent him from receiving the nomination at the coming convention at Cin-
cinnati. I beg the gentleman to understand that, so far as I am concerned,
and I believe so far as any of my colleagues are concerned, we are perfectly
willing that he shall receive that nomination. If, in the pending campaign,
we cannot defeat the gentleman from Maine, God knows our case is hopeless,
entirely so. If he should receive the nomination and be elected in the face of
all the facts, all we can say is, may the Lord have mercy on the American
people. [Laughter.]
In the discussion as to what should be done by the subcommittee under the
circumstances I have stated I did take occasion to say what I now repeat here
in the face of this House and the world, that so far as those letters were con-
cerned they were legally the property of Mr. Fisher, and legally in the pos-
session of his bailee, Mr. Mulligan, and that Mr. Blaine had no more right
to the possession of them than I had; and that if he could procure letters
under even an implied pledge of his personal honor to retui'n them, and
withhold them in the face of that pledge, it was a question for him to settle
with the American people whose suifi'ages he seeks.
I care not whether Mr. Mulligan extorted from him an express promise to
return them or not. He received them, knowing that Mulligan expected him
to return them, and kept them with a strong hand when they were not his
property. I say they were not his property, and I say that in view of the
law of the case. I affirm that the only right the gentleman from Maine had
at all in those letters was to publish their contents for his own private use if
he thought proper, or restrain by injunction their publication by another.
In one of the most celebrated cases upon this subject, where the whole
question Avas thoroughly discussed and all the authorities reviewed, the
famous case of Grigsby and wife against Breckenridge, one of the most illus-
trious jurists that ever adorned the bench on this continent. Chief Justice
Eobertson, of Kentucky, says:
A majority of the American cases even deny the right of the author to enjoin the pub-
lication of a private letter on the ground of property. But, as before suggested, we in-
cline to the conclusion that the weight of authority, fortified by analogy, preponderates
in favor of the author's special property in the publication, and in his consequential
right to publish if he keep or can procure a copy. But the recipient is not bound to keep
the origmal for his transcription, inspection, or other use. There is no adjudged case or
elementary dictum extending the author's right of property beyond this circumsci'ibed
and contingent range. And all the cases cited in this case thus limit and define it.
Publication by the author is circulation before the public eye by printing or multiplied
copies in writing. The like publicity by the act of the recipient womd be an infringement
of the author's exclusive right, which he may prevent by mjunction.
He goes on to say:
In an able article on the author's right to enjoin the publication of private letters,
Parker, an eminent judge in Massachusetts and professor in the Harvard law school,
said:
" The receiver of a letter is not a bailee, nor does he stand in a character analogous to
that of a bailee. There is no right to possession, present or future"—
Mark you —
*'no
larK you —
right to possession, prese»t or future, in tbe writer,'
APtENDii. 349
Then where did the gentleman from Maine get the right to waylay Mr.
Mulligan and procure these letters in the manner in which he admits
himself he did, and hold on to them in defiance of the bailee's right of
possession?
The only right to be enforced against the holder is a right to prevent publication, not
to require the manuscript from the holder in order to a publication by himselt.
The right of the receiver—
The right of the receiver —
then, is to the whole letter. He may read it himself and to others, and recite it at meet-
ings. He may do everything but multiply copies; and perhaps he may do this, if he do
not print them.
Now, sir, there is the whole case. Mr. Mulligan was legally ia the posses-
sion of the letters by the permission of the recipient, with the authority to use
them in any manner he saw proper. Those letters were taken from him
under an implied promise, to say the least, to return them, and they are kept
from him by a strong hand. The question what the subcommittee was to do
under the circumstances was submitted to the Committee on the Judiciary.
And now comes the strange part of the whole thing, which I believe has not
yet been developed before" the House.
Mr. FRYE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman allow me
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does'the gentleman yield to the gentleman
from Maine?
Mr. KNOTT. Here comes the strange part of the whole thing. The
Committee on the Judiciary have done the gentleman from Maine no wrong.
They have not even decided what shall be done with those letters. Nobody
has even intimated that he shall be obliged to give them to any human being
on the earth. The committee have taken no action in the matter at all, but
on to-morrow mornmg that question was to be brought up, and yet in advance
of their conclusion and in defiance of all parliamentary law that I have ever
heard of, an Ex-Speaker of the House comes here on the pretext of a personal
explanation and takes the matter away from the jurisdiction of a committee
to which it has been committed and drags it before the House.
Now, that is simply the condition in which the question stands. It is still
subjudice, not decided at all, and with no intimation from any one that a soli-
tary one of those letters would be taken from him or given to the public, but
with a very positive assurance on my part to the gentleman, through his
friends, that he would not be martyred by the Committee on the Judiciary,
at least not with my consent.
Mr. FRYE. Now, will the gentleman yield to me for a moment?
The SPEAKER pi'o tempore. Does the gentleman from Kentucky yield
to the gentleman from Maine ?
Mr. KNOTT. Why is all this noise made for so little wool?
The SPEAKER pro tempwe. The gentleman declines to yield.
Mr. KNOTT. The Judiciary Committee, upon whom the gentleman has
made such violent assaults, has done him no wrong. On the contrary, that
committee has extended to him every conceivable courtesy from the very be-
ginning, as has been explained here by my honorable colleague from Virginia.
No disposition has been manifested by any member of that committee to
do anything that would militate against the gentleman's interest in the slight-
est possible degree. Every request he ever made to the committee has been
complied with. Every postponement asked for has been granted. When
350 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
he has asked that the inquiry should he prosecuted without delay, it has heen
done, or at least attempted. When he has asked that the investigation he
delayed, it has been delayed. When he has asked on technical grounds that
evidence be excluded, it has invariably been excluded. Everything has been
done to protect the gentleman; for God knovrs we want him nominated.
[Laughter.] He need not be afraid of meeting any opposition to his nomina-
tion on this side of the House.
Now, sir, there might be, I do not know that it ever will be, but there
might be a grave question presented to the consideration of the House gTow-
ing out of this matter, and that question is this: Whether after the House has
committed a matter to a committee for investigation its authority can be
trifled with by having the witnesses who maj^ be summoned before that com-
mittee met by the way-side by parties implicated, piimped, their documentary
evidence taken from them, retained by force, and a contemptuous refusal
given to the committee when it calls for the production of papers thus ob-
tained. Such a question, I say, might be raised, but I do not know that it
ever will.
Sir, the gentleman has read a letter from a Mr. Robinson, and although I
was not present when he was examined, I believe when that witness was
asked if he had bad an interview vrith Mr. Blaine he denied it, until after
a great deal of questioning, and coaxing, and persuading he finally admitted
that he had had such an interview.
Mr. HUNTON. Let me state in regard to that matter that Mr. Ashe
asked the witness the question whether he had talked of this matter with any
gentlemen since his arrival in Washington. He said he had talked to one or
more. Mr. Ashe asked him to name them, and he named one. Mr. Ashe
asked him whether with any one else, and he answered yes, with Mr. A. B.
Mr. Ashe asked him if that was all, and he answered yes, to Mr. C. D. He
was then asked, " Is that all?" and he answered, " Yes; that is all." At that
point I asked him, " Have you not talked this matter over with Mr. Blaine
since you arrived in Washington City ?" and he said he had.
Mr. BLAINE. Who is that?
Mr. HUNTON. The witness Robinson.
Mr. BLAINE. Yes, he came to teU me how you had been coaching him.
[Great laughter.]
Mr. KNOTT. I was remarking that every request preferred by Mr.
Blaine or his friends on the subcommittee has been granted. Whenever a
legal question has been raised at his request or that of his friends and sub-
mitted to the whole committee, it has in every instance been decided, so far
as I know and believe, with the utmost impartiality. When, for instance, a
question was raised as to whether a certain witness should tell what Josiah
Caldwell had told him about the seventy-five-thousand-dollar-bond transac-
tion, it was objected on the part of Mr. Blaine that Mr. Caldwell was out
of the jurisdiction of the United States, and the witness was not allowed to
say a word about Mr. Caldwell.
A proposition was then made that Mr. Caldwell should be telegraphed to
know if he would come here and give his testimony. That was objected to
by Mr. Blaine and his friends. Why? Because, forsooth, Mr. Caldwell
would not come if we were to telegraph for him. The question was submit-
ted to the full committee, and it was determined not to telegraph to him.
But other witnesses continually referring to matters of which they had heard
showed the absolute necessity of having Mr. Caldwell's testimony if it could
be obtained. After considerable delay the committee concluded that they
APPENDIX. 351
would telegraph to him, and the chairman was instructed to do so. I asked
my friend from Virginia [Mr. Hunton] to ascertain Mr. Caldwell's address,
and he endeavored to do so, and left this memorandum with one of the officers
of the House:
Find some man from Arkansas and learn where in Europe is Josiah Caldwell.
After all the investigations that the officer of the House could make we
could not find out where Mr. Caldwell was. I myself inquired of several
gentlemen, and requested one of them to write to Boston to ascertain where
Caldwell was. It is true— and now I am going to make the gentleman from
Maine happy, I have now doubt — that on last Thursday morning, about
eight o'clock — I do not know but it might have been a little after eight o'clock,
or a little before eight o'clock, or at eight o'clock — I did receive such a tele-
gram; but the gentleman from Maine seems to know precisely when it was —
Mr. BLAINJE. I do.
Mr. KNOTT. He seems to know precisely from what point it came. He
seems to know precisely the contents of the telegram. He seems to be
thoroughly posted upon that subject. Now, right here, permit me to say
with regard to the insinuation that that telegram was suppressed elsewhere,
any man, high or low, whomsoever he may be, may make it and take the con-
sequences here. I will hurl the falsehood into his tcolh. I received it; but,
so far from suppressing it, within less than thirty minutes after I received it
I read it to several gentlemen. But there was no particular place designated
in the despatch as Caldwell's address, save London; no street, no house, no
other locality whatever; and it did occur to me. and I am not altogether cer~
tain that I do not now believe, it was a fixed-up job; so I thought I would
wait a while and see what would come of it.
Mr. FRYE. Allow me to ask you a question there?
Mr. KNOTT. Wait until I get through with this. That dispatch came
last Thursday. On Friday we had a general meeting of the committee. I
had not the dispatch with me. I am not sure that I would have read it to
the committee at that time if I had had it with me, as we were engaged with
other matters. I am free to say that I had a suspicion that it was a fixed-up
job. I have that suspicion now. The reason why I have it is that other
people seem to know so much about it. I am assured that none of the gen-
tlemen to whom I showed it have ever said anything to any mortal man in
relation to it.
Ajad I will say further that no longer ago than Saturday last I again asked
the friend whom I had asked to 'write to Boston if he had ascertained for me
the address of this Mr. Caldwell, and was told by him that he had not. I in-
tended to telegraph to him; I wanted an answer to a telegi'am of my own, so
that I might know it was genuine. If I failed in that, I intended to hand the
telegram I had received to the committee for them to make whatever use they
could of it. Nobody is hurt by that. Even if it were published to the
four winds of heaven, it is not evidence for any purpose on the Lord's earth,
and no lawyer will insinuate that it is.
Now, sir, I will ask if I was under any obligation, legal or moral, to pub-
lish a telegram voluntarily sent to myself, without any solicitation upon my
part, and in answer to no suggestion that I had made? It struck me as
something strange that this man should know so well to whom to telegraph
and what to telegraph, before he had ever had any commmiication at all with
me on the subject; and it still strikes me as strange.
352 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Mr. HALE. Will the gentleman from Kentucky allow me to ask him a
question?
Mr. KNOTT. Yes, with a great deal of pleasure.
Mr. HALE. The despatch was received, was it not, upon Thursdays
morning last?
Mr. KNOTT. I have said so two or three times over distinctly.
Mr. HALE. I want to fix the point; that was the date?
Mr. KNOTT. And the word " London" was at the top of it.
Mr. HALE. Did'not that indicate to the gentleman last Thursday morn-
ing where Josiah Caldwell was, in order that he might telegraph to him and
make certain whether it was a real dispatch ? And did the gentleman from
Kentucky at once take that method of obtaining information as to the genuine-
ness of the dispatch?
Mr. KNOTT. Now I will answer the gentleman. I had information
that this Mr. Caldwell was somewhere in Italy. I had had that information
from more than one, that he was on the Continent and not in London. And
there being no point in London designated in the dispatch, no street or house
in a city whd-e there are millions of people, it struck me that I might as well
have gone to hunt for a particular drop of water in the middle of the ocean.
Mr. HALE. Does not the gentleman know that the telegraph operator in
London would have learned that address at once, because that is an every-day
method of securing the address of a person who has not given his address
definitely?
Mr. KNOTT. The gentleman knows more about it than I do.
Mr. HALE. Does not the gentleman know that?
Mr. KNOTT. The gentleman seems to know a great deal about it.
Mr. HALE. I know enough to know that.
Mr. KNOTT. Very well. Now, I say to this House and to the gentleman
from Maine that any insinuation of my suppressing any paper, keeping it bacK
illegitimately, for any purpose whatever, is not only gratuitous, but false.
Mr. HALE. Will the gentleman read the dispatch, in order that we may
see what there is in it?
Mr. KNOTT. When I get ready I will.
Mr. HALE. Does the gentleman from Kentucky propose to read it upon
the floor
The SPEAB^R^ro tempm^e. Does the gentleman from Kentucky yield?
Mr. KNOTT. I do not yield. I have asked the gentleman from Maine,
[Mr. Blaine,] who seems to be so thoroughly posted, how he got his infor-
mation about that dispatch, and he has dechned to tell. Now let the mat-
ter rest right there, just where it is.
Mr. McCRARY. I would like to ask the chairman of the Committee on
the Judiciary [Mr. Knott] whether he communicated the fact of the receipt
by him of that dispatch to any of the republican members of the Judiciary
Committee?
Mr. KNOTT. I have not; and there are several of my democratic col-
leagues to whom I have not communicated that fact, and there are many of
my most intimate personal friends to whom I have not communicated it. To
tell the truth about it, after the day that I received it I gave but little, if any,
thought at all to it until the subject was brought up here.
Mr. McCRARY. I wish it understood for myself and republican col-
leagues on that committee that we had no knowledge of the receipt of that
dispatch.
Mr. McMAHON, Will my colleague allow me to ask him a question?
APPENDIX. 353
Mr. KNOTT. Yes ; with pleasure.
Mr. McMAHON. I would ask the gentleman whether the Committee on
the Judiciary authorized him to telegraph to Mr. Caldwell and have Mr.
Caldwell telegraph a statement in reply ; or was it simply that he should
telegraph where he could be found, in order that his personal presence could
be secured, and he be subjected to oath and cross-examination ?
Mr. KNOTT. I was going to speak of that. The order of the Committee
on the Judiciary, as I understood it, was to telegraph to Mr. Caldwell to
know if he would come here and give his testimony under oath as a witness,
and not that he should volunteer any information at all upon the subject.
Mr. FRYE. I desire to ask the gentleman a question right here. Will the
gentleman be kind enough to state to the House what Mr. Caldwell said in
that dispatch ?
IVIr. KNOTT. Has not your friend already stated it ? Do you not believe
vour colleague from Maine ?
Mr. FRYE. No, sir. [Laughter.]
Mr. KNOTT. You do not ? Well, I do. [Great laughter.]
Mr. FRYE. In other words, if the gentleman from Kentucky refuses to
produce that dispatch to the House, I say it seems to be entirely supposable
that Mr. Blaine has not got the whole of that dispatch, and I desire to ask
if there is not something else in the dispatch to keep it back ?
Mr. KNOTT. No, sir. Does that satisfy you ?
Mr. BLAINE and others. Read it, then.
Mr. KNOTT. Will gentlemen "possess their souls in patience ?" Let us
hear from the gentleman from Maine where he got his information ; let us
know who has violated the law and how he came to be the recipient of the
secrets of this violator of law.
Mr. BLAINE. If the gentleman is through I desire to call the previous
question on my resolution. I merely want to test by that whether this House
is going to unite
Mr. KNOTT. I have not yielded the floor. I want to state to the House
that this telegraphic dispatch, that was sent to me without any solicitation
upon my part, I have it still in my possession, but it is at my room. Its con-
tents are substantially as stated by the gentleman from Maine. Whoever
informed him, or however he got his infonnatiou, I do not know that I can
repeat the dispatch in its exact terms. It was to the effect
Mr. BLAINE. I thought you refused to repeat it.
Mr. KNOTT. Well, who asked you to put in just at this particular time ?
[Laughter.] You will have an opportunity to tell where you got your
information. I was going on to state my recollection of the contents of the
dispatch. If I had it here I should not object to reading it. Whether it came
from Mr. Caldwell or not I do not know. The pui-port of it was that he had
seen Mr. Thomas A. Scott's testimony in the New York papers ; that it was
substantially correct ; that he had not let Mr. Blaine have any bonds, and
he would send an aflfidavit to that effect, but that he was engaged m railroad
enterprises there and could not come here to give his testimony without seri-
ous pecuniary loss. That is substantially what is in the dispatch.
Now, I desire to say that if the gentleman had only waited that dispatch
would have been presented to the committee to be made use of in whatever
way the committee may have seen proper. I repeat, that from the beginning
I have had no desire to injure the gentleman from Maine personally, and espe-
cially politically ; none whatever. But I have desired, as I still desire, that
the truth may be told. As for myself, I had no knowledge of any transac-
354 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
tion by the gentleman from Maine inconsistent with the highest personal
integrity. I had no desire that he should be injured if innocent. I had,
however, and still have, a desire that whoever may be guilty of wrong, we
shall " turn on the gas" and let the people see it.
Mr. Blaine then demanded the previous question in the
resolution, and after an animated discussion on sundry points
of order, Mr. Blaine moyed that the rules be suspended to pass
the resolution. The Chair decided that no motion to suspend
the rules was in order. Mr. Bassing, of Ohio, moved to refer
the resolution to the Committee on the Judiciary, and the
Speaker ruled that the disposition of the resolution was prop-
erly before the House upon the motion of the gentleman from
Ohio. On the demand of Mr. Page, the yeas and nays were
ordered ; the question was taken, and there were, yeas, 125 ;
nays, 97 ; not voting, 86. So the motion was agreed to. Mr.
Bassing then moved to reconsider the vote by which the reso-
lution was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and
also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.
The latter motion was agreed to.
II.
LETTEE OF WM. WALTEE PHELPS.
In the beginning of this year, when Mr. Blaine's name began
to loom up as a Presidential candidate, the question of his con-
duet respecting this matter was again brought forward and
formal charges against his integrity repeated. In answer to
these charges Mr. William Walter Phelps, of New Jersey,
published the following explanatory letter in defence of Mr.
Blaine's character :
[From the Evening Post, April 26, 1884.]
To the Editor of tTie Evening Post.
Sir: On April 7 you made formal charges against James G. Blaine. _ They
are the same which were made eight years ago, and which were, I think, at
that time satisfactorily answered. Lest others, however, may, like yourself,
have forgotten everything except the misstatements, you must permit me to
remind you of the facts. I think I may claim some qualifications for the
task. I have long had a close personal intimacy with Mr. Blaine, and dur-
ing many years have had that knowledge and care of his moneyed interests
which men absorbed in public affairs are not inapt to devolve upon friends
who have had financial training and experience. I do not see how one man
could know another better than I knoAv Mr. Blaine, and he has to-day my
full confidence and warm regard. I am myself somewhat known in the city
of New York, and think I have some personal rank with you and your
readers. Am I claiming too much in claiming that there is not one among
you who would regard me as capable of an attempt to mislead the public in
any way? With this personal allusion — pardonable, if not demanded under
the circumstances— I proceed to consider your charges.
The first charge is really the one upon which all the others hinge. I give
it in full and in your own language, only italicizing some of your words, in
order that my answer may be the clearer. You say:
" In the spring session of Congress in 1R69, a bill was before the House of Representa-
tives which sought to renew a land grant to the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad of
Arkansas, in which some of Mr. Blaine's friends tvere interested : that an attempt to
defeat it by an amendment was made, and was on the point of being successful, and its
pi-omoters were in despair; that at this juncture Mr. Blaine, being then Speaker of the
House, sent a message to General Logan to make the point of order that the amendment
was not germane to the purposes of the bill; that this point of order was accordingly-
raised and promptly sustained by Mr. Blaine as Speaker, and the bill was in this manner
saved; that Mr. Blnine wrote at once to the promoters calling attention to the service
he had rendered them, and finally, after some negotiations, secured from. them, as a
reward for it, his appointment as selling agent of the bonds of the road, on commission,
in Maine, and received a number of such bonds as his percentage; that the leading feat-
ure of this transaction appeared in two letters of his afterward made pubUc, dated re-
spectively June 29 and October 4, 1869."
3^6 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Your error is in the facts. Mr. Blaine's friends were not connected with
the Fort Smith and Little Rock Road at the time of the passage of this bill.
Those to whom you refer as his friends were Caldwell and Fisher. The bill
passed in April, 1869. In April, 1869, Mr. Blaine did not know that there
was any such man as Caldwell; and Fisher, who was Mr. Blaine's friend,
did not know that there was any such enterprise as the Little Rock Railroad
in the world. The evidence of these assertions was before Congress, was
imcontradicted, and is within your reach. On the 29th of June, nearly
eighty days after Congress had adjourned, Mr. Blaine, from his home in
Maine, wrote to Fisher, and spoke of Fisher's " offer to admit him to a share
in the new railroad enterprise." Fisher had introduced the subject to Mr.
Blaine for the first time a week before at the great music festival at Boston.
He told him there that Mr. Caldwell, whom Mr. Blaine had not yet seen,
had now obtained control of the enterprise and had invited Fisher to join
him. At that time Fisher was a sugar refiner of considerable wealth in Bos-
ton, had been a partner of Mr. Blaine's brother-in-law, and through him had
made Mr. Blaine's acquaintance. The offer Mr. Blaine refers to in his letter
was Fisher's offer to induce Caldwell, if he could, to let Mr. Blaine have a
share in the bed-rock of the enterprise. Mr. Fisher failed to do this, and
Mr. Blaine never secured any interest in the building of the Fort Smith and
Little Rock Railroad.
What interest, then, did Mr. Blaine obtain? An interest in the securities
of the company. How? By purchase, on the same terms as they were sold
on the Boston market to all applicants: sold to Josiah Bardwell, to Elisha
Atkins, and to other reputable merchants. He negotiated for a block of the
securities, which were divided, as is usual in such enterprises, into three
kinds — first-mortgage bonds, second-mortgage bonds, and stock. The price,
I think, was three for one. That is, the purchaser got first-mortgage bonds
for his money, and an equal amount of second-mortgage or land-grant bonds
and of stock thrown in as the basis of possible profit. I may be mistaken as
to the price, but I think not. I went myself at this time into several adven-
tures of the kind on that ratio, and have always understood that Senator
Grimes and his friends got their interests in the Burlington and Missouri
Road, a branch of the Union Pacific, on the same basis of three for one. It
was the common ratio in that era of speculation. Mr. Blaine conceived the
idea that he might retain the second-mortgage bonds as profit and sell the
first-mortgage bonds with the stock as a bonus. He believedthe first-mort-
gage bonds were good, and he disposed of them to his neighbors in that
faith and with the determination to shield them from loss in case of disaster.
Disaster came. The enterprise, like so many others of the kind, proved a
disappointment and the bonds depreciated. Mr. Blaine redeemed them all.
In one or two cases only had he given a guarantee. In none other was there
any legal obligation, but he recognized a moral claim and he obeyed it to his
own pecuniary loss. I cannot but feel that the purchasers of these bonds
would have fared worse had they been compelled to look to many of those
who have sought to give an odious interpretation to Mr. Blaine's honorable
conduct. The arrangement for the purchase of the block of securities was
made in June or July. The sales of the first-mortgage bonds out of the block
were continued through the months of July, August, and September, 1869.
The transaction was nearly closed when, in the letter of October 4, Mr. Blaine
wrote to Fisher and told him the parliamentary story of the 9th of April.
Mr. Blaine had come across it while looking over the Congressional Olobe,
with a natural curiosity to see what had been his decisions during the first
APPENDIX. 357
six weeks of his Speakership, and he wrote of it to Fisher as an item in the
legislative history of the enterprise into which they had both subsequently
entered. It concerned a bill to renew a land-grant made long before the war,
to the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. The bill had passed the Senate
■without opposition, and there was no one objecting to it in the House, but
the advocates of the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific Railway Bill sought to
attach their bill to it as an amendment. This El Paso Bill was known at the
time as General Fremont's scheme, and had been urged upon Congress be-
fore. It was unpopular, and was openly opposed by General Logan. Wed-
ded to the Little Rock Bill it would gain strength, but the Little Rock Bill
would lose strength, and a just measure, universally approved, would be
killed in the effort to pull through with it this objectionable measure, which
was generally disapproved. Mr. Blaine's letter to Fisher will tell the rest of
the story. He wrote: " In this dilemma. Roots, the Arkansas member, came
to me to know what on earth he could do under the rules, for he said it was
vital to his constituents that the bill should pass. I told him that the amend-
ment was entirely out of order because not germane, but he had not suffi-
cient contidence in his knowledge of the rules to make the point. But he said
General Logan was opposed to the Fremont scheme, and would probably
make it. I sent my page to General Logan Avith the suggestion, and he at
once made the point. I could not do otherwise than sustain it, and so the
bill was freed from the mischievous amendment and at once passed without
objection." Mr. Blaine added these very significant words: " At that time
I had never seen Mr. Caldwell, hut you can tell him that without knowing it I
did him a great favor. ... I thought the point would interest both you and
Mr. Caldwell, though occurring before either of you engaged in tJie enterprise."
This seems, Mr. Editor, to dispose of your first charge. The bill was a
just one, and Mr. Blaine's friends had no interest in it when it passed the
House. Eighty days after the House adjourned Mr. Blaine asked his friends,
who had in the mean time taken hold of the enterprise, and had offered him
some interest, to let him in as a partner. They refused. They did, however,
sell him a block of securities on the same terms they sold them to others, and
it proved an unfortunate purchase, for he sold them out among his friends,
believing them valuable, and took them all back when they depreciated in
value. The letter of Mr. Blaine, written long after the transaction, is his
complete vindication. To give it a semblance of evil you assign a date to it
six months before it was actually vmtten. The late Judge Black, after an
investigation of the whole subject, declared in his characteristic style that
" Mr. Blaine's letter proved that the charge [which you repeat against hira]
was not only untrue but impossible, and would continue so to prove until
the Gregorian Calendar could be turned aroimd and October made to precede
April in the stately procession of the year."
Your second charge consists of two parts. The first part is that Mr. Blaine
wrongfully asserted that " the Little Rock and Fort Smith Road derived its
life and value and franchise wholly from the State [of Arkansas], and not
from Congress; whereas the evidence subsequently taken disclosed the fact
that the road derived the value on which these bonds were based from the
Act of Congress of which Mr. Blaine secured the passage." It will be found
that you have inaccurately quoted Mr. Blaine's language, or rather that you
put language into his mouth which he never used. What Mr. Blaine did
say was, "The railroad company derived its life, value, and franchises from
the State of Arkansas." And Mr. Blaine stated the precise truth. What are
tji§ fscts? More \hm thirty years ago Congress granted to tbe States of Mis-
358 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
souri and Arkansas a certain quantity of public lands to aid in the construc-
tion of certain lines of railway. The franchises which should be granted to
the companies that should build the road were expressly left by Congress to
the Legislatiires of the States. Mr. Blaine spoke, therefore, with absolute
precision of language, as he usually does, when he stated that "the Little
Rock Railway Company derived its life, value, and franchises wholly from
the State of Ai'kansas," just as the Illinois Central Railroad Company derives
its life, value, and franchises from the State of lUmois, though enriched by
a land-grant from the United States, just as the Little Rock Road was.
The second part of yom* second charge is, that Mr. Blaine did not speak
truthfully when he asserted that he bought the bonds "at precisely the same
rate as others paid." There is no evidence anywhere to sustain this accussi-
tion. I have already said any person could negotiate for them on the one-
for-three basis just as Mr. Blame did, and many availed themselves of the
opportunity. The price paid was not in the least affected by the fact that
Mr. Blaine had already arranged to sell the securities at a higher price than
he paid for them. He did this with the determination, honorably main-
tained, that he would make good any loss which might accrue to the pur-
chasers. These sales did not change the price paid to Fisher, and the proof
that they did not is found in the fact that Mr. Blaine paid it to him in full.
You speak in this connection of Mr, Blaine's being appointed an agent to
sell the bonds of the company. No such appointment was ever made and
no evidence suggests it. Mr. Blaine negotiated for his securities at a given
price, which was paid in full to Mr. Fisher.
Yom- third formal charge relates to an alleged connection of Mr. Blaine
with a share in the Northern Pacific enterprise. You charge this in the face
of the fact that in Mr. Blaine's letter, in which you find the subject referred
to, was his distinct asseveration that he could not himself touch the share.
Have you seen any evidence that he did? I have not. The Northern Pacific
Railroad Company has been organized and reorganized, and recently reor-
ganized a second time. Its records of ownership and interest have passed
under the official inspection of at least a hundred men, many of whom are
political enemies and some of whom are to my knowledge personal enemies
of Mr. Blaine, and there has never been a suggestion or hint from any of
these that in any form whatever Mr. Blaine had the remotest interest in the
Northern Pacific Company. If one of your associates has such evidence, it
is right that he should produce it.
Your fourth charge is, that after Mr. Blaine got possession of the so-called
Mulligan letters, "he subsequently read such of them as he pleased to the
House in aid of his vindication." The answer is that Mulligan's memoran-
dum of the letters, in which he had numbered and indexed each one of them,
was produced, and number and index corresponded exactly with the letters
read. This was fully demonstrated on the floor of the House, and is a part
of its records.
You repeat the charge that Mr, Blaine received a certain simi from the
Union Pacific Railway Company for seventy-five bonds of the Little Rock
Road, You say this without a particle of proof. You say it against the
sworn denial of Thomas A. Scott, who was the party alleged to have made
the negotiation. You say it against tbe written denial of Mr. Sidney Dillon,
President of the company; against the written denial of E. H. Rollins, Treas-
urer of the company; against the written denial of Morton, Bliss & Com-
pany, through whose banking-house the transaction was alleged to have been
made, Against this mountain of direct and positive testimony from every
APPENDIX. 359
one who could by any possibility have personal knowledge of the alleged
transaction, you oppose nothing but hearsay and suspicion as the ground of
a serious charge against the character of a man long eminent in public life.
The courtesy which admits me to yom- columns prevents my saying what I
think of your recklessness in this matter.
Your fifth charge arraigns Mr. Blaine's policy as an executive officer, and
your last charge is that of his packing conventions in his own favor. I do
not desire to dwell upon either. This is not the place to review his foreign
policy to which you refer, and I am content to remark that however much
some Eastern journals may criticise, it is popular with a large majority of
the American people. It is simply an American policy, looking to the ex-
tension of our commerce among the nations of this continent, and steadily
refraining from European complications of every character.
The charge of packing conventions needs no answer. This is the third
Presidential campaign in which Mr. Blaine has been undeniably the choice
of a large proportion of the Republican Party. In each of them he has had
the active opposition of the National Administration, with the use of its
patronage against him. Mr. Blaine has control of no patronage. He has
no Machine. Machine and patronage have been persistently against him.
Whatever prominence he has enjoyed has been conferred by the people.
He has no means, not open to every citizen, of influencing public opinion.
No campaign in his favor originated elsewhere than among the people. He
has never sought office. He never held a position to which he Avas not nomi-
nated by the unanimous voice of his party. He has not sought the Presi-
dency. Circumstances made him a candidate in 1876, almost before he was
aware of it. In 1880 he did not wish to enter the canvass. I was one of a
small party of intimate friends who, in a long conference in February, 1880,
persuaded him that it was his duty. He has done nothing to make himself
a candidate this year. He has asked no man's support. He has written no
letters, held no conversations, taken no steps looking to his candidacy. He
has never said to his most intimate friends that he expected or desired the
nomination.
If, upon a review of the whole case, you should charge that it would have
been better and wiser for Mr. Blaine to have refrained from making any in-
vestment in a railroad that had directly or indirectly received aid from the
legislation of Congress, I should be ready to agTce with you, not because
the thing was necessarily wrong in itself, but because it is easy for such
matters to be so represented as to appear wrong. But why should Mr.
Blaine be selected for special reprobation and criticism when so many other
Senators and Representatives have been similarly situated? I know of my
own knowledge that Governor Morgan, Mr. Samuel Hooper, Senator Grimes,
and many of my friends while in Congress acquired and held interests in
such enterprises ; and neither you nor I nor the people suspected the trans-
action to be wrong, or that it gave them an advantage over other investors.
Why entertain and publish that suspicion against Mr. Blaine alone? When
I sat as a delegate-at-large in the last National Convention, Senator Edmunds
and Senator Windom were both candidates for the Presidency, and I should
gladly have supported either. Senator Edmunds was understood to have a
block of Burlington and Missouri securities, and Senator Windom had not
only a block in the securities of the Northern Pacific Company, but was one
of its directors. Yet you find no fault with these gentlemen. Nor would
you and I differ in giving the highest rank to Sen-Uor Grimes : hut both he
and Senator Edmunds acquired their interests in the Burlington and Missouri
360 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE.
Road when they were in the Senate. They both supported the bill to re-
store the land grant to their road. It was passed on the same day with the
Little Rock Bill. Both measures were just, and both were passed in the
House and Senate without a dissenting vote. "Why must we suspect that
Mr. Blaine had a secret and corrupt motive, and that other members and
Senators had none?
Let me add a circumstance which seems to me to be not only significant
but conclusive of Mr. Blaine's conscious innocence in this Fort Smith trans-
action. He voluntarily made himself a party of record in a suit against the
Fort Smith and Little Rock Railway Company, in the United States Circuit
Court, which involved the nature and sources of his ownership in the prop-
erty. This was before he was named for the Presidency. If he had ob-
tained this ownership dishonorably, would he have courted this publicity?
I have thus ventured, Mr. Editor, to make answer to the charges you
have brought against ^Ir. Blaine. There are other charges equally baseless
which I have read, but in other papers, so that I may not claim your space
to deny or answer them. I give two examples. Mr. Blaine is represented
as the possessor of millions, while I personally know that he was never the
possessor of the half of one million. He was represented as living for the
past ten years in palatial grandeur in "Washington. He sold that palatial
mansion, with all its furniture, to Mr. Travers for $24,500, and got all that
it was worth. But you are responsible only for such charges as you have
made, and I have, therefore, made answer to them authoritatively over my
own name, and I challenge denial of any substantial fact I have stated.
Your attacks are not on Mr. Blaine alone ; they are on his friends as well,
and these are certainly a larger and more devoted body of supporters than
can be claimed by any other man in public life. It seems to me, as I recall
those in every station who are proud to be numbered among them, that I
recognize many of the ablest, truest, and most honorable of our coimtry-
men.
"Wm. Walter Phelps.
Washington, April 23, 1884.
^^^^vT v\sZli>^^-^^_
B I O
imHtl^i!>'i:!i'i:m
EDIUl
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DREW!
1 CH1CA<
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Copyright, 1884, by
A. E. GOODSPEED.
TO THE
^RAND ^RMY OF THE P^EPUBLIC,
THIS BIOGRAPHY
OF THE
]plR^T jIl0MMANDEF( IN J^JhIEF OF THE ^F(DEF(
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
^SiWr^. "r^'c^ _rt^-?^-
'^^;^°*u^
PREFACE
It is not curiosity alone that creates a desire in the minds of people
to read the biographies of candidates for President and Vice-President.
It is true that the most enjoyable reading one can find is the life of a
man who has risen from humble walks to a position of eminence among
his fellows. To follow his career from boyhood to manhood, to enter
with him the rugged pathway of his life, and to pursue it with him to
the end, leaving him resplendent on the heights of fame, has a fascina-
tion beyond that of any other kind of literature. But there is a deeper
reason than all these for the avidity with which the American people
peruse the pages of a biography of candidates. It is to learn as nearly as
possible the breadth and depth of their statesmanship, their knowledge and
experience, their capabilities to manage the affairs of our nation, as well
as their veneration for and loyalty to the principles upon which our Re-
public is founded. They examine carefully into the records of the can-
didates in whom they are to confide the great trust of national honor
and national prosperity, and hence the necessity for a truthful history.
The nomination of Gen. John A. Logan was strongly evidenced
as coming directly from the people. It was a great disappointment to
the Grand Army of the Republic and all the old soldiers, that his name
did not head the ticket, but when the National Convention unanimously
nominated him for Vice-President, they accepted this token of honor
for their favorite, and hastened to ratify the nomination of the ticket.
Gen. John A. Logan has had a remarkable career, not only as a
military man, but as a statesman. It is seldom we find the two gifts in
one personality. The same invincible courage that won him laurels on
the battle-field has distinguished him as a statesman. It was therefore
thought that a biography of him, truthfully presented, would supply a
public necessity, and place his political and military history fairly before
the country.
In the preparation of this work we have had the advantage of a free
access to all the political and military records, both public and private.
connected with tlie man. We have spared no expense in gathering
other material for this work. Every fact has been carefully sifted. A visit
to Southern Illinois gave us the facts of his early life. Here we found
people who have known him all his life, and it is a singular fact that
not one was found that did not believe in the integrity and uprightness
of the man. No matter how much they might differ with him politi-
cally, they pronounced him "true as steel." Soldiers in every part of
the Union have been consulted. "We have been surprised at the depth of
feeling manifested by the veterans of the war. We have interviewed
hundreds of them, and have written to many more. All seemed to take
a pride in consulting old letters, diaries, &c., to give us truthful state-
ments. Officers as well as private soldiers have contributed freely. At
his home in Chicago, among his friends and neighbors, we have collected
much valuable information. At Washington we gathered many facts
and impressions from those who have watched his course in the National
Capitol since the war. We have had long interviews with many who
have sat with him in the Halls of National Legislation and have had an
opportunity to study the man as a Statesman. One and all believe him
to be a man that can be thoroughly trusted. We have been careful to
consult Democrats as well as Republicans, that our work might be
impartial.
It is to these sources of information that we are indebted for much
we have given our readers. To this is added the personal acquaintance
of the author. Hence the work is authentic, and will take its place as
one of the standard biographies of eminent Americans.
It will be placed in the library of the educated man as a book of refer-
ence among the biographies of such men as Webster, Clay and LiNCOiiN.
Our only regret is that we may have fallen short in doing complete
justice to his remarkable career, and to his excellent traits of mind and
heart, but we have the consciousness of knowing that the biography has
been faithfully prepared and faithfully recorded.
THE PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
FROM THE FARM TO COl^GRESS.
PAGS
A dramatic life. — His father's striking characteristics. — His Celtic ances-
try.— The old homestead. — Birth of John A. Logan. — His early train-
ing. —Goes to Shiloh College. — Service in the Mexican War. — Returns
a commissioned officer. — He attends a law university. — Forms a law
partnership with his uncle. — Elected to the State Legislature. — Re-
sumes his profession. — A brilliant record as Public Prosecutor. —
Again sent to the Legislature. — A Presidential Elector. — Nominated
for Congress. — Takes his seat and opposes the ultra wing of his party.
— His voice raised in behalf of the Union. — He rebukes treason. —
Goes to the Charleston Convention. — Witnesses the inhumanities of
slavery. — The scales fall from his eyes and he sees light 361
CHAPTER 11.
FROM CONGRESS TO THE BATTLE-FIELD.
He proves himself a leader. — Re-elected to Congress as a Douglas Demo-
crat.— Support of Lincoln and the will of the people. — His reverence
for the Constitution. — Taunted with being an Abolitionist. — Is op-
posed to a war. — His platform : " The Union forever." — In citizen's
attire he carries a musket at the first Bull Run. — His position ques-
tioned by his constituents. — Threatened with a mob. — Returns home.
— He makes a speech, and enlists a regiment of 1,010 men. — Resigns
his seat in Congress. — To him alone General Grant attributes the
loyalty of Southern Illinois. — Irrefragable evidence of his loyalty at
the beginning of the war. — A candid statement of his political views
at that time 377
CHAPTER III.
BELMONT, FORT HENRY, AND FORT DONELSON.
In camp at Cairo. — The expedition to Belmont. — Logan saves the day. —
The first to enter Fort Henry. — Captures a battery from the retreat-
ing Rebels. — The terrible battles before Port Donelson. — His regiment
fights till its ammunition is gone. — Logan twice wounded. — A Brig-
adier-General for gallantry. — He wants to push things at Corinth. —
Engaged in guarding and constructing the railroad. — Thanked in
General Orders. — He declines to return home and run for Congress. . 395
Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE VICKSBUEG CAMPAIGN.
PAGE
Logan made a Major-General of Volunteers. — Takes the advance in
the Northern Mississippi Campaign.— Develops capacity for effective
organization. — Placed at the head of the Third Division of McPher-
son's Corps. — Dispatched to Lake Providence. — The forced march
down the river to Hard Times. — Crosses the river and moves on to
Port Gibson. — On to Jackson. — Logan's own battle at Raymond. —
Jackson captured. — The battle of Champion Hills won by Logan. —
What the Compte de Paris says about his tactics there. — Pemberton
withdraws behind the ramparts of Vicksburg. — The siege. — Logan's
soldiers blow up the redoubt and charge the breach. —Given the
honor of the advance in entering the captured city. — Made Military
Governor. — Asked by President Lincoln to come North and address
the people 416
CHAPTER V.
THE GEOEGIA CAMPAIGN.
Logan in command of the Fifteenth Corps. — In winter quarters at Hunts-
ville. — The " Snapper of the Whip." — The attempt to flank the rebels
at Dalton. — The day before Resaca. — Logan urges McPherson to let
him charge a fort. — He disturbs the rest of a fellow-soldier. — The
battle of Resaca. — Swimmers wanted. — Bloody repulse of the Confed-
erates.— Forward, by the Right Flank. — The famous " battle without
orders," at Dallas. — General Geo. A. Stone's description of the day. —
Logan's coolness under fire. — Drives the rebels at the Big Kenesaw.
— Opposes useless slaughter at Little Kenesaw. — Charges a bluff.—
Crosses the Chattahoochee. — At Marietta. — On to Decatur. — In line
before Atlanta. — The great battle of July 22. — The death of McPher-
son.— Logan assumes command of the Army of the Tennessee and
repulses Hood. — A broken promise. — A movement in the dark. —
Howard in command. — The Fifteenth Corps unsupported at Ezra
Chapel. — The battle of Jonesboro. — Hood allowed to escape. — The
army in camp. — A story of the campaign around Atlanta 443
CHAPTER VI.
THE CAMPAIGN THEOUGH THE CAEOLINAS.
Logan called North by Lincoln for the political campaign. — Joins Grant at
City Point. — Ordered to supersede Thomas in command of the Army of
the Cumberland. — ^Asks Grant to excuse him from this duty, and to be
sent back to his own corps. — The terrible march through the Caro-
linas. — Crosses the Salkahatchie and North Edisto. — The Congaree,
Saluda, and Broad crossed, with Hampton's troopers in front. — Co-
lumbia occupied. — Fighting fire.— The bottomless Lynch Creek
passed. — On to Fayetteville. — Building corduroy roads. — Over the
CONTENTS. IX
PAGE
Soutli River and on to Goldsboro. — Marching to the sound of the
^uns.— Joins the left wing at Bentonville Cross Eoads. — At Golds-
boro.— At Kaleigh. — Logan saves the city. — Organization of the So-
ciety of the Army of the Tennessee. — Again in command of the army.
— The grand review. — Resigns his commission. — Farewell address to
liis soldiers 500
CHAPTER VII.
THE PERIOD OF EECONSTRUCTIOIT.
General Logan's services in civil positions. — The Cooper Institute meet-
ing in 1865. — He gives the Southerners some good advice at Louis-
ville.— Nominated and confirmed as Minister to Mexico, he declines
the place. — Declines the Mission to Japan. — Nominated by acclama-
tion for Congressman -at-Large from Illinois, and elected by 60,000
majority. — First Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Re-
public.— He institutes the observance of Decoration Day. — Has it
made a national holiday. — A Manager for the House at the Impeach-
ment of Andrew Johnson. — His argument at the trial. — Appeal for
the Veterans of the War of 1812. — Renominated for Congress. — A
delegate to the Republican Convention in 1868. — Nominates General
Grant for the Presidency. — Takes the stump. — Explains his position
on financial questions in a speech at Morris, El. — Arraigns the rebel
brigadiers. — Defeats the " Jenckes Tenure-of -office Bill." — Calls a halt
to railroad subsidies. — His draft of the Fifteenth Amendment agreed
to in conference and adopted. — His bill for the reduction of the army.
— He dissects General Sherman's letter to Senator Wilson. — Debates
on the removal of the Capitol and the readmission of Virginia. — His
appeal for Cuban liberty. — Eulogy of General Thomas. — Again re-
nominated for Congress. — Elected United States Senator 515
CHAPTER Vm.
LOGAN" IN THE SENATE.
General Logan's peculiar relations as United States Senator. — A constit-
uency coextensive with the country. — A touching incident in Sena-
torial life. — The Senator at home. — His description of the Chicago
fire. — His reply to Sumner's attack on President Grant. — He secures
legislation prohibiting the sale of fire-arms to the Indians. — On the
stump in 1874.— His tilt with the rebel brigadiers in 1876. — He si-
lences Gordon. — Defeats the bill to transfer the control of Indian
afiairs to the army. — Discussed by press and people for the Presi-
dency.— Declines to allow the opposition to Mr. Blaine to combine on
him at the Cincinnati Convention. — His interest in the Arrearage of
Pensions and the Equalization' of Bounties Bills. — His support of the
Resumption Act. — Speech on Finance at Van Wert, Ohio. — Re-elected
to the United States Senate. — His opposition to the revolutionary
methods of the Democrats in the Forty-sixth Congress. — The Army
Bill and the pay of United States Marshals. — The attitude of the Re-
publican party on the Southern question as outlined by Logan.— He
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN.
PAGE
Logan made a Major-General of Volunteers. — Takes the advance in
the Northern Mississippi Campaign.— Develops capacity for effective
organization. — Placed at the head of the Third Division of McPher-
son's Corps. — Dispatched to Lake Providence. — The forced march
down the river to Hard Times. — Crosses the river and moves on to
Port Gibson. — On to Jackson. — Logan's own battle at Raymond. —
Jackson captured. — The battle of Champion Hills won by Logan. —
What the Compte de Paris says about his tactics there. — Pemberton
withdraws behind the ramparts of Vicksburg. — The siege. — Logan's
soldiers blow up the redoubt and charge the breach. —Given the
honor of the advance in entering the captured city. — Made Military
Governor. — Asked by President Lincoln to come North and address
the people 416
CHAPTEE V.
THE GEOEGIA CAMPAIGN.
Logan in command of the Fifteenth Corps. — In winter quarters at Hunts-
vUle. — The " Snapper of the Whip." — The attempt to flank the rebels
at Dalton. — The day before Resaca. — Logan urges McPherson to let
him charge a fort. — He disturbs the rest of a fellow-soldier. — The
battle of Resaca. — Swimmers wanted. — Bloody repulse of the Confed-
erates.— Forward, by the Right Flank. — The famous " battle without
orders," at Dallas. — General Geo. A. Stone's description of the day. —
Logan's coolness under fire. — Drives the rebels at the Big Kenesaw.
— Opposes useless slaughter at Little Kenesaw. — Charges a bluff.—
Crosses the Chattahoochee. — At Marietta. — On to Decatur. — In line
before Atlanta.— The great battle of July 22.— The death of McPher-
son.— Logan assumes command of the Army of the Tennessee and
repulses Hood. — A broken promise. — A movement in the dark. —
Howard in command. — The Fifteenth Corps unsupported at Ezra
Chapel. — The battle of Jonesboro. — Hood allowed to escape. — The
army in camp. — A story of the campaign around Atlanta
CHAPTER VI.
THE CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE CAROLINAS.
Logan called North by Lincoln for the political campaign. — Joins Grant at
City Point. — Ordered to supersede Thomas in command of the Army of
the Cumberland. — Asks Grant to excuse him from this duty, and to be
sent back to his own corps. — The terrible march through the Caro-
linas. — Crosses the Salkahatchie and North Edisto. — The Congaree,
Saluda, and Broad crossed, with Hampton's troopers in front. — Co-
lumbia occupied. — Fighting fire.— The bottomless Lynch Creek
passed. — On to Fayetteville. — Building corduroy roads. — Over the
I,
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,
PAGE
Gen. John A. Logan (Steel) Frontispkee.
Gen. John A. Logan at the Battle of Dallas Frontispiece to text.
Gen. John A. Logan's Birthplace. Ruins of the House with its Pictur-
esque Surroundings 365
Mrs. John A. Logan 371
Lieut. Logan at the Close of the Mexican War 377
Gen. Logan's Residence in Chicago, HI 383
Fortified Bluffi) at Columbus, Ky 389
The Union Forces Landing at Belmont 395
Landing Troops for the Fort Henry Expedition 401
Marching across the Country to Fort Donelson 407
Logan's Regiment at Fort Donelson 413
Group of Rebel Prisoners Captured at Fort Donelson 419
Logan's Division Ready to Advance to Port Gibson 425
The Grand Assault at Vicksburg 431
Siege of Vicksburg. — Cannon Dismoimted Inside the Rebel Works 437
Logan's Headquarters at the Siege of Vicksburg. 443
Logan's Corps Charging the Rebel Works at Resaca 449
Logan's Wagon Trains Passing Resaca at Night 455
Gathering the Wounded at Foot of Kenesaw 461
Burying the Dead on the Battle-field before Atlanta 467
The Battle-field where McPherson was Killed 473
Waiting for the Rebels to Approach, at Ezra Chapel 479
Logan's Forces Tearing up the Railroad at Jonesboro 485
The Fifteenth Corps in Camp at East Point, Ga 491
The Army of the Tennessee Marching through Georgia 497
Logan's Corps Attacking the Rebel Position at Benton's Cross-Roads. . . 503
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
(
FAGB
The Turnpike leading to Gouldsboro. Making Eoads through North
Carolina 509
Logan's Corps crossing the North Edisto River 515
The Hospital at Vicksburg 521
Raising the Flag at Corinth, Miss 527
Chattanooga Railroad, near Whiteside, Tenn 533
In Winter Quarters at Huntsville, Ala 539
Raising the Stars and Stripes in Georgia 545
Raising the Flag at Jackson, Miss 551
Bridge over the Lumber River 557
Train carrying Logan's Troops to Memphis 563
Guarding Captured Arms at the Siege of Vicksburg 569
Logan's Troops Marching toward Jackson, Miss 575
Burning the Horses kUled at Champion Hills 581
Logan's Corps crossing the Chattahoochee 587
Logan's Corps burning the Railroad at East Point, Ga 593
Monument erected where Grant and Pemberton met to arrange the Ca-
pitulation of Vicksburg 599
Logan's Troops assaulting the Rebel Works at Mill Creek 605
Stockade Fort at Chattahoochee Bridge, between Chattanooga and At-
lanta 611
A Dog found Guarding a Dead Soldier on the Field in Front of Atlanta 617
Ruins of Rolling Mill destroyed by Rebels at Atlanta 623
Logan's Brass Napoleons shelling the Rebels in the Woods on the Move-
ment around Atlanta 629
Bomb-proof made by Citizens of Atlanta 635
View of Atlanta — looking South 641
Marching through Virginia on the Way to the Grand Review at Wash-
ington 647
The Reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic at Minneapolis, July
23,1884 , 653
BIOGEAPHY
OF
GEK JOHN A. LOGAN.
CHAPTER I.
FEOM THE FARM TO CONGRESS.
A dramatic life. — His father's striking characteristics. — His Celtic ancestry. —
The old homestead. — Birth of John A. Logan. — His early training. — Goes
to Shiloh College. — Service in the Mexican War. — Returns a commissioned
officer. — He attends a law university. — Forms a law partnership with his
uncle. — Elected to the State Legislature. — Resumes his profession. — A
brilliant record as Public Prosecutor. — Again sent to the Legislature. —
A'Presidential Elector. — Nominated for Congress. — Takes his seat and
opposes the ultra wing of his party. — His voice raised in behalf of the
Union. — He rebukes treason. — Goes to the Charleston Convention. — Wit-
nesses the inhumanities of slavery. — The scales fall from his eyes and
he sees light.
npHE man of whom these pages treat, needs no apologist.
-*- The eye of more than a generation has been fixed upon
his public career, and not one of the shafts of calumny sent
from the ever-drawn bow of partisan malignity has pierced the
shining mail of his untarnished integrity. Nor has he filled
the place of mediocre honesty merely, but whether upon the
field of battle, in the halls of Congress, or in the forum of
legal debate, he has been pre-eminent. Rising as he did from
the ranks to the command of an army, the simple story of his
life forms one of the most dramatic chapters in contemporary
history. No pen can clothe the career of Richard Cceur de
Lion, of Sir William Wallace, or of Wallenstein, with more
362 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
thrilliDg interest than invests a truthful narrative of his deeds
of prowess and sagacity in war, or bold conceptions in the
councils of peace.
The history of the United States for the past twenty-five
years has been the most important since the foundation of the
Kepublic. The structure of the government has been prac-
tically remodeled. This little era of years has witnessed the
decadence of a provincial allegiance to the separate States, and
a corresponding growth of Nationality. From an ill-assorted
confederation, we have become a compact Nation, and the
greatest power of modern times. On every page of the annals
of this period of transition, John A. Logan has left the imprint
of his genius.
Such a man can never receive full justice during his lifetime.
It is only when his work is ended, that the historian may tell
all the truth, free from the imputation of man-worship which
repels where the writer intended to engage his reader, and
defeats his aim through an inexorable prejudice in the human
mind against book-praise of a contemporary. The wings of
Truth must therefore be clipped to ensure her stronger flight.
General Logan's father was Dr. John Logan, who came to
this country from the north of Ireland, in the early part of
the present century, settling first in the State of Maryland.
Afterwards, he was carried with the westward current to Mis-
souri, and there married a French lady, the daughter of one of
the old families of the province. She possessed wealth and
social position, and the fortunes of the young physician were
most promising, when his wife was stricken by early death,
leaving one daughter as the fruit of the marriage. Dr. Logan,
soon after this event, crossed the Mississippi, and took up his
residence in Illinois, at what was then " Brownsville," the seat
of Jackson county. Here he made the acquaintance of Miss
Elizabeth Jenkins, a sister of Lieutenant-Governor A. M.
FROM THE FARM TO CONGRESS. 363
Jenkins, and they were married after a brief acquaintance.
Their eldest child was John Alexander Logan, born February
9, 1826, the subject of this biography. Subsequently, their
family increased to eleven children. The family homestead
was a large farm, near Brownsville, where now stands the town
of Murphysboro', and in a capacious log house, remaining
intact until recently destroyed by fire, the children were born
and passed their youth.
Dr. Logan was a man of great force of character and schol-
arly attainments. Besides being the most skillful physician
in that region, he was well versed in the classics and the mas-
ters of English literature. He took great pride in his fine
farm, and in breeding and improving his horses and cattle.
He was a devotee of field sports, and kept his hounds for the
hunt. In short, he was a type of the courtly Irish gentleman,
yet he had a profound hatred for a pretentious aristocracy,
being a consistent democrat in his views upon social questions.
He held himself above the forms of dissipation incident to a
frontier life, and was never heard to utter an oath. His integ-
rity was of the strictest sort, and became proverbial in all the
region where he was known. His hospitality was famous, and
in those good old days of the Circuit Eider, the Methodist
minister always stopped and preached at Dr. Logan's house
in making his rounds.
It was but natural that such a man should lay carefully the
foundation for future usefulness in his son, by the closest
attention to his early education. Being a studious man him-
self, he instilled in the mind of the boy the importance and
power of knowledge. The facilities for education being limited,
as in all new countries, he supplemented his own training and
that of the common school by the employment of a private
tutor, who lived in the family and taught the children. John
was an apt scholar in the languages, taking kindly to the
364 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHK A. LOGAK.
intricacies of the Greek verb and the verses of the Koman
poets.
General Logan's mother came of Scottish ancestors. She
was endowed with those characteristics peculiar to her bold
and sagacious race. She survived until 1877, some twenty-
six years longer than her husband, and was tall and stately,
persevering and unerring of judgment, preserving her traits
of mind and person to the last.
There were many things which tended to make young
Logan a manly, self-reliant boy, besides the characteristics
inherited from his sturdy parents. He was the eldest son of
a large family of brothers and sisters, and naturally began
to be looked up to, at an early age, with a certain amount of
deference in the management of the farm during the con-
tinual absence of his father, whose practice took him far and
wide over a broad extent of territory. Under such circum-
stances he soon realized the nature of the practical respons-
ibilities of life, and these responsibilities awakened the power
to meet them. He thus became a leader among his fellows,
as courage and capacity will always find followers among less
self-asserting natures. In all the accomplishments of youth
he excelled. He was the best horseman, the strongest swim-
mer, the surest shot, and the finest player on the violin in the
neighborhood. He manifested the same intensity of character,
pluck, aptitude, and perseverance in all he did which have
marked his career as a man.
Prof. Thomas, Entomologist of the Smithsonian Institution
at Washington, who married one of the General's sisters,
tells many interesting anecdotes of his exploits when a
boy, one of which will suffice to show his early confidence
and courage.
When he was about fifteen years old he determined to
build a flat-boat to navigate the Muddy river which flowed
_4
GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN'S BIETHPLACB.
(From a Photograph iij, possession of the family )
RUINS OF THE HOLSE WITH ITS PICTUEESQUE SLKEOUNDINGS.
( From a recent Photograph taken by the family.)
FROM THE FARM TO CONGRESS. 367
by the farm. The boat was built, when, like the craft of
Kobinson Crusoe, it was found to be useless for the purpose
intended unless it could be safely launched upon the river. It
was brought to the edge of the stream, where the question
arose as to who should pilot it out upon the swift and tur-
bulent current. No one volunteered for the emergency, and
the boy declared that he would undertake the feat alone.
V/ithout a moment's hesitation he sprang aboard and pushed
it off, handling the unwieldy boat with safety, to the admira-
tion of his timid companions.
A gentleman, who is still living, tells of his first seeing
young Logan at his father's house, more than forty-five years
ago. At this time the gentleman in question was a clock-
maker, and called to repair a tall, old-fashioned timepiece,
which stood against the wall in the doctor's house. The boy,
then a bright, black-eyed lad of about thirteen, watched his
operations with great interest, as he took the works apart and
spread them out upon a table. As he progressed, John
remarked, " I think I could learn that business pretty soon,"
and Mr. Barlow says he thought, from his intelligence, he
could, and laughingly told him so.
Thus he grew up a favorite wherever he was known, for his
bright, cheery ways, companionable nature, and manly traits,
alternately working on the farm and attending school, or
pursuing his studies under the guidance of the tutor, who,
among other things, gave him his first hints about the
art of oratory, which he afterwards turned to so good account.
When sixteen years of age, he began a course of study at
Shiloh College, where he was always one of the best students
during the three years he spent in its halls. He delighted
in debates, and was regarded the finest declaimer in the
institution.
In this connection, the writer is reminded of an incident
368 BIOGEAPHT OP GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
whicli occurred in recent years. Senator Logan was con-
valescent after a painful attack of rheumatism, and in a
jocular mood. In the course of a call upon him under these
circumstances, he remarked : "I have an old document, some-
where among my papers, which I think I might give to some
of you newspaper men to publish."
In answer to a question as to the nature of the paper, the
General replied : " It is a diploma I got, when I was a boy,
for standing at the head of my class in grammar."
It may be stated here that the criticism in the press, from
time to time, upon General Logan's alleged lack of learning,
is one of those myths which gain currency about men in
public life without foundation, and find popular credence from
repetition, regardless of their baseless origin. Lucky the
public man who has no more vulnerable point of attack than
his grammar ! The fact is, that General Logan had superior
educational advantages to those enjoyed by Washington, or
Jackson, or Lincoln, and he improved them.
Says the New York Tribune : " General Logan fought his
own way bravely through college with what help a hard-working
doctor in a pioneer country could give his several sons ; was
graduated honorably, studied law awhile with his uncle, and
then was graduated from the regular law school. Perhaps his
English may sometimes betray traces of the pioneer habits of
a third of a century ago in Southern Illinois. He speaks the
French and Spanish languages, is an enthusiast in Shakespeare,
of which he can repeat whole plays by heart. He has been
known among his brother Senators to correct a Harvard grad-
uate in Latin pronunciation, and a Williams graduate in
Shakespearean quotation, and his familiar acquaintance with
modern tongues is reported to have stood in the breach where
other Senators faltered and fell."
Says the venerable historian and journalist, Maj. Ben: Perley
FROM THE FARM TO CONGRESS. 369
Poore, in speaking of Logan : " His language compares favor-
ably with that of other Senators in debate."
He is one of the very few members of either branch of
Congress who never revises his speeches before publication in
the Congressional Record.
The story of his illiteracy is on a par with the report that
he has Indian blood in his veins, whereas his extraction is
Celtic, as has been shown in the earlier pages of this narrative.
This impression arose probably from two things : first, the
General's swarthy complexion, and straight, black hair ; and
second, because there was in the school-books of twenty-five
years ago an alleged oration of a Cayuga chief called " Logan."
His college life was cut short by the stirring events of 1846.
It was precisely what was to be expected from a young man
of Logan's nature, that he should respond to the summons at
the first call to arms. His studies had given him a zest for
wider experience. He longed to see a foreign land and strange
people. His spirit had the martial inclination of his ancestors
of the clans, whose blood coursed in his veins. The fire of
patriotism was born within him, and he hastened to enlist in
the 1st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, joining Company H. He
was promoted to lieutenant, and marched with his command
into Mexico, having served with such distinction, that, al-
though only in his twenty-first year, he was made quarter-
master of his regiment.
Upon his return from the war he was the hero of the com-
munity, and at once was accorded that position of influence
among the people of Southern Illinois, from which he has never
taken a backward step. In casting about for a profession he
decided to adopt the law. In 1849, the year following the close
of the war, he was elected clerk of Jackson County, but in
1850 he resigned in order to go to Louisville, where he entered
as a student in the Law Department of the University,
370 BIOGRAPHY OF GETS'. JOHN A. LOGAK.
Graduating with honorSj he returned once more to Murphys-
boro and entered into partnership with his uncle, Lieut.-Gover-
nor Jenkins, a Jacksonian Democrat.
His practice was lucrative from the first, and he was im-
mediately recognized as one of the rising lawyers of the State.
He met the brightest ornaments of the bar, and by ready re-
source, brilliant oratory, and a thorough knowledge of the
principles of jurisprudence gained a reputation that brought
him eager clients. It was under such headway toward opu-
lence and professional distinction, that he was summoned
again to a position of public trust, and began that ofl&cial
career in which his life has since been spent, to his personal
disadvantage from a material point of view, but to the glory
of his name and the honor of his country.
Small matters often fix the destiny of a man. If General
Logan had confined his exertions to the field of his profession
he would probably be to-day in the enjoyment of vast wealth,
with a practice worth fifty thousand dollars a year. He was
born for public aftairs, however, and following the bent of his
nature, he yielded to the solicitation of admiring friends and
became a candidate for the State Legislature in 1852. His
district comprised the counties of Jackson and Franklin, and
had some years before been represented by his father. The
young man's competitor was an old and well-known politician,
and the canvass was sharply contested. Logan was elected by
a very large majority.
Kesuming his interrupted practice at the close of his term,
he was at once brought forward as a candidate for Prosecut-
ing Attorney for the Third Judicial District. His experience
at the bar had been chiefly in criminal cases, or at any rate
he had naturally attracted attention in trials of this class
mainly, and his success had been so signal that his fitness for
the position of public prosecutor was spontaneously acknowl-
^i.""1'
it'''' #!. i- ,
JlLIMIIIlLiiiill jitlllil'
MRS. JOHN A. LOGAif.
FBOM THE FARM TO CONGRESS. 373
edged. He had already establislied a reputation for integrity,
his acquirements and ability were unquestioned, and, what was
of great moment in those days, he was known to be possessed
of undaunted courage. But a short time before, after his
return from the Mexican war, he had gained great fame by his
pursuit of a band of horse-thieves who had taken refuge in
Southwestern Missouri, and the recapture from the outlaws
of his neighbors' horses which had been stolen.
He was triumphantly elected District Attorney, and during
his term of office increased his legal fame by a career of unin-
terrupted success. Not a criminal escaped whom he brought
to trial, and not an indictment was quashed.
It was during this period that he went to Shawneetown to
attend court, and accepted an invitation to dinner at the
house of his old friend and comrade of the Mexican war, Capt.
Cunningham. There he met the captain's daughter, a beauti-
ful girl of seven teeen, who had just returned home, after com-
pleting her education at St. Vincent's Academy, at Morgan-
field, Ky. They were married in the ensuing autumn, Novem-
ber 27, 1855, and the young lady of thirty years ago is to-day
unquestionably the best known and most popular woman in
the United States.
A writer in the Philadelphia Times gives the following
sketch of the early life of Mrs. Logan :
" The American ancestry of Mrs. Logan goes back to a
sturdy Irish settler of Virginia and a French pioneer of Louis-
iana, Her great-grandfather, Kobert Cunningham, of Vir-
ginia, was a soldier of the War for Independence, after which
he removed to Tennessee, thence to Alabama, and thence to
Illinois, when still a Territory, and there manumitted his
slaves. Her father. Captain John M. Cunningham, served in
the fierce Black Hawk war. He was a member of the Legis-
lature of Illinois in 1845 and '46, and served in the Mexican
374 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN". JOHN A. LOGAN.
War. Her mother was Miss Elizabeth Fontaine, of a distin-
guished family of that name, which had arrived in Louisiana
during the French occupancy of that country, and had thence
journeyed up the Mississippi river and settled in Missouri. It
was here that John Cunningham met his bride, and it was
near the present village of Sturgeon, then known as Peters-
burg, in Boone County, Mo., that Mary Simmerson Logan was
born, on August 15, 1838. When she was one year old, her
parents removed to Illinois, and settled at Marion, in William-
son County. It was here that the mother and the oldest
daughter, then but nine years old, shared the dangers of a
frontier home and the cares and solitude of a growing family,
when the husband and father went forth to fight the battles
of his country upon the parched plains of Mexico, and braved
the trials and privations of a miner's life in the Sierras of
California,
" The father felt a just pride in his eldest daughter. The
assistance which she had rendered her mother during his long
absence in Mexico and California had even more closely en-
deared her to his heart, and her love of study had prompted
him to give part of his income to her proper education. Ac-
cordingly, in 1853, the daughter was sent to the Convent of
St. Vincent, near Morganfield, Ky., a branch of the Nazareth
Institute, the oldest institution of the kind in the country.
This was the nearest educational establishment of sufficient
advancement in the higher branches of knowledge. The young
lady was reared a Baptist ; after her marriage she joined the
Methodist Church, the Church of the Logan family."
In 1856, the people of his district again insisted upon his
becoming a candidate for the Legislature, and he made the
canvass during the famous "Fremont Campaign," being
elected practically without opposition. His career in the
Legislature was conspicuous, and he was heard upon every
FROM THE FARM TO CONGRESS. 375
measure of importance to the people of the State at large.
He was recognized as one of the leading members, and became
well known throughout the State. He showed the same
fearless courage of conviction then that has characterized his
later life.
When Bissel was elected Governor of Illinois, Logan
made a strong opposition to his being permitted to qualify,
on the ground that he had been guilty of fighting a duel.
The constitution provided that no man who had ever par-
ticipated in a duel should hold any civil office in the State.
Logan contended that the fact of his having accepted this
challenge to fight a duel had placed him under a constitu-
tional disqualification from holding the office ; and in sup-
port of his position, he made one of the strongest arguments
that has ever been made in the Illinois Legislature — an argu-
ment for which he has no occasion at this day to apologize or
be ashamed. An argument against the practice of dueling
at that time, by a Democrat of his standing, was something
very remarkable. He took the position in the argument that
the duello was the relic of a savage and barbarous age, and had
been so pronounced by the Constitutional Convention of
Illinois, and that it was wrong in the Legislature or the
people, in any manner, even indirectly, to endorse such an
uncivilized method of settling grievances.
This year he was a Presidential elector on the Buchanan
and Breckenridge ticket, speaking in various parts of the
State for the candidates of his party.
In 1858, at the age of thirty-two, he was nominated for
Congress as a Democrat, in the Ninth district, and was chosen
by the largest majority ever given at a Congressional election.
His district embraced sixteen counties, known as " Egypt,"
and as its Kepresentative he took his seat in the Thirty-sixth
Congress. Stephen A. Douglas was the young Congressman's
376 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
friend, and his ideal of a statesman. He naturally allied him-
self to Douglas, who was then the most prominent man in his
party in the West, and followed his lead, so far as consistency
would allow, in public matters. Even at this time the viru-
lent enemies of the ascendant influence of the free States were
rampant in attitude and violent in speech, and the energies of
the " valiant Egyptian " were devoted to the restraint of hos-
tility to the Union. His voice was raised for the cause of loy-
alty. He rebuked incipient treason, and merited the con-
tumely of the Southern leaders, who were plotting to bring
headlong ruin upon the Union unless they were allowed to
rule its fortunes as the price of peace.
Eeturning home at the expiration of his first term in Con-
gress, he was sent as a delegate to the Charleston Convention,
and for the first time in his life had an opportunity to see the
horrors of slavery. He witnessed the brutal scenes of the auc-
tion block, where men were sold for a price like cattle, and
every human instinct outraged by remorseless power. The
revolting inhumanities of the slave-pen were disclosed. The
ulcer was laid bare in all its disgusting corruption. The in-
tolerance of the Southern slave-holding aristocracy, actuated
only by the lust of gold and power, was revealed in its true
nature. The scales fell from his eyes and he saw the light.
After his return to Congress, therefore, he understood, as
he had never before, the true motives behind the course of the
slave oligarchy, and he foresaw that by some means the down-
fall of so barbarous a system was inevitable. His subsequent
support of the " Crittenden Compromise " did not indicate his
endorsement of slavery, but his desire to avert a great calamity
if possible.
LIEUT. LOGAK AT THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN" "VVAE.
CHAPTER II.
FROM CONGRESS TO THE BATTLE-FIELD.
He proves himself a leader. — Reelected to Congress as a Douglas Demo-
crat.— Support of Lincoln and the will of the people. — His reverence
for the Constitution. — Taunted with being an Abolitionist. — Is opposed
to a war. — His platform: "The Union forever." — In citizen's attire
he carries a musket at the first Bull Run. — His position questioned hj
his constituents.— Threatened with a mob. — Returns home. — He makes
a speech, and enlists a regiment of 1,010 men. — Resigns his seat in
Congress. — To him alone General Grant attributes the loyalty of
Southern Illinois. — Irrefragable evidence of his loyalty at the begin-
ning of the war. — ^A candid statement of his political views at that
time.
THE year 1860 saw the turning-point of many a public
man's career in the United States. Out of the crisis in
the Nation's affairs, the strongest rose to the surface, as the
weakest were buried. It was a time when merit becomes con-
spicuous, and the eye of the public, searching for leaders,
quickly discerns the innate differences in men, and chooses,
usually with unerring judgment, between superiority and
fortunate mediocrity. At such junctures, new measures are
born, old paths of thought and action are deserted, and men
who are wise enough and bold enough, bravely cast old issues
behind them, and follow their conscience, in defiance of tradi-
tion and prejudice.
At this juncture, John A. Logan showed himself to be en-
dowed with those supreme qualities which other men rely
upon and follow.
He ran for Congress a second time as a Douglas Democrat.
380 BIOGRAPHY OF GE^-. JOHlf A. LOGAN.
He was a staunch, champion of the " Little Giant," and his
efforts upon the stump that year extended his fame as an
orator beyond the limits of his native State. It was no small
honor to the young Congressman to leap at once to the front
rank, among a people who were accustomed to hang upon the
eloquence of Lincoln, Yates, and Douglas.
He was elected triumphantly, but witnessed the defeat of
the man he most admired in public life, and the success of
Abraham Lincoln. His valor and frankness during the cam-
paign had indicated his metal, however, so that, amid the
sullen murmurs that beset the President-elect, he knew that
in Logan be had an ally ready to sacrifice everything in the
protection of his constitutional rights.
Logan had said, more than once, upon the hustings, that,
although he advocated with all his might the election of Mr.
Douglas, and hoped for the defeat of Mr. Lincoln, yet, should
the latter be elected, and any man raise his hand to prevent
the lawful fulfillment of the will of the people as expressed
at the ballot-box, he " would shoulder his mnsket to have
him inaugurated."
Even then had the bluster of the slave-holding power begun
to impress itself seriously upon the people, and the contest
for the overthrow of the Federal Grovernment began to rise as
a terrible possibility.
Logan has been charged by political opponents with sym-
pathy with slavery at this time ; but this, without qualifica-
tion, cannot be said in candor. The most that can be alleged
of his position at this period is that he tolerated it.
What were the circumstances ? He had been reared in a
pro-slavery atmosphere, and had grown to the full maturity
of his powers while Massachusetts and Minnesota were
mobbing Abolitionists. He had been taught from his earliest
recollection to reverence above all things the Constitution,
FROM THE FARM TO CONGRESS. 381
which, as our forefathers handed it down to us, recognized and
protected the institution of slavery.
Was it to be expected, therefore, that the young man
would appear at once entirely different from the mold in
which he had been produced ? Was it his crime that he had
been born and taught in a certain sphere of thought upon the
great question which then agitated the country ?
General Logan needs no apology for his attitude. He
boldly advocated what he thought was true policy at all times.
When he saw he was wrong, he was brave enough to say so
with equal boldness, and to stake his life upon the issue.
If not an anti-slavery man himself he was, at least, in favor
of fair play and free speech. During the stormy session of
Congress preceding the outbreak of the war, Mr. Lovejoy, a
member from Illinois, rose to speak, and the Southern members
closed around him with clenched fists, threatening him with
personal violence should he attempt to proceed. Suddenly
the stalwart form of the swarthy member from " Egypt " was
seen hurrying down the aisle to where his colleague stood.
Logan, taking a position at his side, spoke in tones that com-
manded attention, and caused the hot-blooded Southerners
to hesitate. Said he, speaking of Mr. Lovejoy : " He is a
representative from Illinois, the State that I was bom in, and
also have the honor to represent ; he must be allowed to speak
without interruption, otherwise I will meet the coward or
cowards outside of this House, and hold them responsible for
further indignities offered to Mr. Lovejoy."
With this, Lovejoy went on unmolested, and made one of
the most bitter anti-slavery speeches ever heard upon that
floor.
The evidence is abundant, that early in his public career
his convictions began to undergo a radical change, and he saw
that, from a moral standpoint, slavery was a pernicious thing.
382 BIOGEAPHY OF GEK. JOHlS' A. LOGAK.
It was an institution which, like polygamy to-day, was an
evil, bui how to deal with it was a problem involving many
complications. There is no doubt that after his visit to
the far South, in 1860, when he had his first opportunity
to study the conditions of society where Negro slavery
existed, he held, and gave public utterance to the sentiment,
that slavery was "unquestionably a great wrong." So ex-
plicit was he upon this point, that he was even taunted with
being an Abolitionist.
Looking back over the events of a quarter of a century of
progress in thought, the young generation will fail to ap-
preciate the gigantic stride which Logan made, when he, upon
his own judgment, at the beginning of serious trouble, cast
off the traditions of his family, and set at defiance the violent
sentiment of the people among whom he had passed his life.
It was the conviction of a great man in advance of his con-
stituents. A collision was inevitable. The question was,
would he unaided and alone carry the day in the contest that
was to come, or would he be borne down by the avalanche of
hostile public opinion, which only a short time subsequent to
his re-election, began to be dominant in his district.
While these fires were smouldering in Southern Illinois, he
departed for Washington and at once entered, with all the
intensity of his nature, into the conflict of opinion as to the
wisest course to pursue in meeting the demands of the hour.
He was opposed to a war, which is saying little more than
that he was a patriot. He knew what war was. He had seen
its desolation. He foresaw the tremendous shock to our in-
stitutions that would ensue. He realized that the greatest
civil strife of modern times, with its fearful cost of blood and
treasure, was the inevitable result of a clash of arms. As a
statesman he knew that Progress is the twin sister of Peace,
while war and human misery stalk hand in hand.
FROM CONGRESS TO THE BATTLE-FIELD. 385
In this emergency, however, he never faltered as to his duty,
should the worst become inevitable. He tore off the insignia
of party, and stood upon a platform with but a single plank,
— " The Union forever."
In season and out of season, privately and publicly, he
opposed secession.
In December of that year Mr. Morris offered the following :
"Besolved, By the House of Kepresentatives, that we are
unalterably and immovably attached to the Union of the
States ; that we recognize in that union the primary cause of
our present greatness and prosperity as a nation; that we
have seen nothing, either in the election of Abraham Lincoln
to the Presidency of the United States, or from any other
source, to justify its dissolution, and that we pledge to each
Other 'our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors' to
maintain it."
Mr. Logan voted in the affirmative upon this question.
Again, January 7, 1861, a few weeks later, before the first
shot of the Kebellion had been fired, or the first call of troops
had been issued by Mr. Lincoln., Mr. Logan voted for the
resolution which approved " the bold and patriotic act of
Major Anderson in withdrawing from Fort Moultrie to Fort
Sumter, and of the determination of the President to main-
tain him in that position," and binding Congress to " support
the President in all constitutional measures to enforce the
laws and preserve the Union."
Every Southern Congressman, and Messrs. Pendleton and
Vallandigham of Ohio, and Niblack of Indiana, voted against
it.
Mr. Logan not only voted for the utterance of the resolu-
tion, but fortified his action by the public assertion that it
met with his " unqualified approbation."
When the " Crittenden Compromise " was under discussion,
386 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHlf A. LOGAN.
February 5, rising in his place on the floor of the House, he
I have always and do yet deny the right of secession. There
is no warrant for it in the Constitution. It is wrong, it is un-
lawful, unconstitutional, and should be called by the right name
— ^revolution. No good, sir, can result from it, but much mis-
chief may. It is no remedy for any grievance. I hold that all
grievances can be much easier redressed inside the Union than
out of it. I have been taught to believe that the preservation of
this glorious Union, with its broad flag waving over us as the
shield for our protection on land and on sea, is paramount to all
the parties and platforms that have ever existed or ever can exist.
I would to-day, if I had the power, sink my own party and every
other one with all their platforms into the vortex of ruin with-
out heaving a sigh or shedding a tear, to save the Union, or
even stop the revolution where it is.
A public man deserves to be judged out of his own mouth.
He knew his own views better than any one else, and if the
English language is susceptible of succinct enunciation, Gen-
eral Logan's patriotism at this crisis should be stripped of any
uncertainty.
With the firing on Fort Sumter, he saw clearly that all
further argument was useless. The die had been cast, and he
stood ready to act as he had spoken.
Attired in citizen's dress, he fell into the ranks of a Michigan
regiment at the first battle of Bull Kun, musket in hand. He
fought that day, after thousands of men in uniform had thrown
away their arms and were running for their lives, bent only
upon regaining the north bank of the Potomac river.
In the meantime, the people of Southern Illinois, growing
more and more restless, did not approve of the course of their
Kepresentative in Congress. Secession feeling ran high, and
Logan was denounced at one public meeting after another.
FROM CONGRESS TO THE BATTLE-FIELD. 387
until he was threatened with mob violence should he dare to
show himself in their midst.
The people of that section were chiefly from the Carolinas,
Kentucky and Tennessee, while on either hand lay the slave
territory of Missouri and Kentucky. Logan himself, on his
mother's side, was related to leading families of Tennessee and
Virginia, and his course was regarded as that of an apostate.
The allegiance of Northern Democrats, who had been accus-
tomed to follow the dictates of the autocrats of the slave
power, was wavering everywhere, and it is no wonder that
Southern Illinois was ripe for secession.
The period was critical. The people began to clamor for an
expression of their Congressman's position from his own
lips.
Leaving Washington at the first opportunity, he bent his
course homeward. The memorable episode in Logan's life, and
in the history of Illinois, which ensued, is graphically told by
a well-known journalist, as follows :
When it became known, therefore, after the battle [Bull
Eun], that the General was about to return to his district and
publicly announce the course he intended to pursue, there was
the greatest excitement among his constituents. People even
forgot to attend to their ordinary vocations, business was sus-
pended, and the farmers, neglecting their crops, came pouring
into Marion — then a little town of 1,000 inhabitants — to await
their Representative's return, and hear what he had to say. Mrs.
Logan foresaw that in the excited state of the public mind every-
thing would depend upon the circumstances under which her
husband made announcement of his intentions. She could not
venture out of doors without a crowd collecting about her and
questioning her concerning her husband, and she felt that it was
of the utmost consequence that he should be able to secure a
fair audience, and be able to exert his personal influence to stay
the threatened stampede of the secessionists. Many who after-
388 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN" A. LOGAlf.
wards were staunch supporters of the Union were then unde-
cided in opinion, and she knew that the slightest untoward
event might turn the scale. It was essential, indeed, for him to
retain their confidence, and by his arts of persuasion convince
them that his was the only reasonable and patriotic course to
pursue. Already resolutions of secession had been passed at
meetings in his district, and Mrs. Logan and her husband's
friends, in endeavoring to restrain public opinion until their
Eepresentative could personally appear and declare his views, had
a most delicate and dangerous role to play.
On the day set for his arrival she drove in a buggy all the way
to Carbondale, the nearest railway station, and twenty-two miles
away, to meet him, but learning there that the train by which
he was to have arrived had "missed connections," immediately
turned about and drove back to Marion. It was evening when
she reached there and the streets were still full of people. They
crowded in a mass around her buggy and demanded to know
why her husband had not accompanied her. Colonel White,
then clerk of the court, and her father, Captain Cunningham,
exerted themselves to pacify the mob, bnt it was not until the
sheriff, Mr. Swindell, stood up in her buggy and urged the crowd
to disperse, assuring it that Logan would surely be there in the
morning and address them, that the clamor could be quelled.
Once released from her unpleasant if not perilous position,
Mrs. Logan turned her horse around and in the darkness pluckily
set out again on that long ride to Carbondale. It was 2 o'clock
in the morning when the train which bore her husband rolled
into the depot, but without waiting to rest and refresh them-
selves, they secured a fresh horse, and by daylight were once
more at Marion. The town was still full of people pacing the
streets, but on perceiving that General Logan had really arrived,
and on receiving his promise to address them at 11 o'clock, they
made no demonstration.
That was a morning that the people of Southern Illinois will
never forget. At the hour appointed a wagon was drawn up in
the public square, from which the General addressed a vast audi-
ence. There were those present who had sworn to take his life
FROM CONGRESS TO THE BATTLE-FIELD. 391
if he declared for the Union ; but, at the conchision of his
speech, he quietly got down from the wagon and then and there
enlisted one hundred and ten men for the first company of
the regiment which he proposed to raise in defense of the
Union. There happened to be present a fifer and drummer who
had served in the Mexican war, and these sturdy old veterans
furnished the music. Captain Looney was chosen to command
the company, and the General, receiving a telegram from Gover-
nor Yates, tendering him a commission as colonel, and asking
him to raise a regiment in his district, resigned his seat in Con-
gress,— the first Eepresentative to do so, — accepted the governor's
ofier, and, within the next ten days, succeeded in enlisting a
regiment of 1,010 men.
The writer once — some four years ago — asked General Grant
to what he attributed the variance in political sentiment be-
tween the people of the lower portions of Illinois and Indiana.
Here were two great States lying side by side with common
interests and similar occupations. It would seem natural that
their position upon public questions should be identical. Yet,
Illinois was loyal in the war and Eepublican usually, while
Indiana was a hot-bed of Southern co-operation, and frequently,
if not generally, went Democratic.
In his quiet tones the veteran replied, in substance : " I at-
tribute this difference solely to Logan. He went home from
Congress at the outbreak of the war, and found his people
ready to go with the South. He made a speech to them, and
volunteered to lead them himself in defense of the Union. He
raised a regiment and turned the tide which would, in my
opinion, have swept Southern Illinois over to the Confed-
eracy."
In view of this overwhelming testimony, what can be more
strange than that there should be any question as to General
Logan's loyalty at the beginning of the war ? In fact there
392 BIOGRAPHY OF GElf. JOHN A. LOGAIT.
is no question about it in the minds of honest men. No truth
that depends upon contemporary evidence, either of record or
tradition, rests upon a surer foundation. Yet, the accusation
that Logan was a secessionist, and actually encouraged men to
join the rebel army, is to-day going the rounds of the columns
of certain partisan newspapers, presumably edited by repu-
table men, who would blush to repeat in the hearing of intel-
ligence, a slander which they write in the solemn deliberation
of their sanctums. They know the calumny is a foolish story,
started in a political campaign in Illinois eighteen years ago,
and is not credited for a moment, except by the ignorant or
malicious. The only excuse for alluding to it here is to pre-
serve every safeguard against error through the repetition of a
libel which the asperities of a political campaign will induce
unscrupulous men to utilize.
Senator Lamar, of Mississippi, who served in Congress with
General Logan in 1861, has put the following on record in
the archives of the nation : " I never heard a word of sym-
pathy from your lips with secession, either in theory or prac-
tice. On the contrary, you were vehement in your opposition
to it."
When the calumny was first uttered. General Logan's
brother-in-law wrote the following letter :
ScooBA, Mississippi, October 15, 1866.
Deae Sir : — I have just seen an article accusing you of as-
sisting me in recruiting men for the Southern army, furnishing
means, etc. Allow me here to state that such is an infamous he.
You neither furnished means or word of encouragement, but sim-
ply said to K. E. Kelly to not be hasty about going South (April,
1861), to weigh the matter well, etc. You never knew that I
had any intention of going South, nor did I write until about
one hour before I did go, and then went as a recruit in Captain
PROM CONGRESS TO THE BATTLE-FIELD. 393
Thorndike Brooks' company, and never recruited a single man
for the Southern army. I write this statement because it is just.
Should have written sooner, but never saw the article until now.
Yours, as ever,
HiBERT B. CUNNIKGHAM.
John A. Logan.
Another member of the same company wrote as follows :
Carbondale, October 16, 1866.
I, A. H. Morgan, of Carbondale, Illinois, do hereby certify
that I differ with General Logan in politics ; that I was in the
Southern army under Captain Thorndike Brooks, of Illinois, in
General Cheatham's command. Left Illinois with H. B. Cun-
ningham (General Logan's brother-in-law) with other young
men of this and Williamson counties, Illinois, who composed
Brooks' company; and further, that I testify to the truth of
Mr. Cunningham's statement ; and further, that General Logan
never furnished means nor encouragement to any of us, neither
was he in Marion at the time we started from that place. This
statement I make without General Logan's knowledge ; do so in
justice to him, and to refute the slanderous charge made against
him.
A. H. Morgan.
Colonel Brooks himself made a similar statement, as did
numerous leading citizens of Marion, who knew personally
the facts.
It is impossible to elevate the question to the plane of
respectable controversy.
General H. V. Boynton, in writing upon this subject, says :
" The roll of honor of the Union armies does not contain a
name worthy to stand above his as the best type of the volun-
teer officer, through all the grades up to the commander of
an army in battle. Before he was of age, he was a soldier in
Mexico. He was a Democratic Congressman from the most
benighted political section of Illinois when Sumter was fired
394 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
upon. He was a good-enough Republican to be a fighting
officer for the Union, and a very stubborn one, too, at the battle
of Bull Run. A good many who wink now as they ask with a
knowing air whether Logan did not once contemplate joining
the Southern Confederacy, had not themselves, at that date,
adopted the doctrine of coercion. Suppose Logan did at first
consider such a step ? There were scores of men, whose promi-
nence in the party is not now questioned, who were proposing
peace conferences or serving on peace committees after Logan
had enlisted as a Union soldier. He never turned his face
toward the Confederacy — except in battle. But if he had,
in the early unsettled days. Republicans, in view of his mag-
nificent service from the hour the first rebel gun was fired, can
give him full and effective defense against all questioners."
Granting, for the sake of the argument, that the allegation
is true, which in fact is precisely the opposite of the case, what
has it to do with the splendid services he rendered when the
nation needed leaders like him ? And what has it to do with
his career in civil life since the war ? As well might the
character of Paul, an apostle, be questioned because he was
born Saul of Tarsus. As well might the glory of the " Father
of his country" be dimmed, because he won his first distinc-
tion fighting valiantly for the king at Braddock's defeat.
^^^'\A^^
CHAPTER III.
BELMONT,
In camp at Cairo. — The expedition to Belmont. — Logan saves the day. — The
first to enter Fort Henry. — Captures a battery from the retreating Rebels.
—The terrible battles before Fort Donelson. — His regiment fights till its
ammunition is gone. — Logan twice wounded. — A Brigadier-General for
gallantry.— He wants to push things at Corinth. — Engaged in guarding
and constructing the railroad. — Thanked in General Orders. — He declines
to return home and run for Congress.
LOGAN was now fairly enlisted in the war. Upon the
^ presentation of a flag to his regiment, he said : " Should
the free navigation of the Mississippi River he obstructed by-
force, the men of the West will hew their way to the Gulf of
Mexico." He was soon to receive his baptism of fire, for hav-
ing rendezvoused his command at Cairo, then General Grant's
headquarters of the District of Southeast Missouri, he had
scarcely devoted six weeks to the drilling of his regiment,
when they were sent with the expedition to Belmont, where it
was their fortune to save the day to the Union forces.
General Fremont, in command of the Western Department,
had been maneuvering against Stirling Price all summer.
As in the war of William the Testy against the Connecticut
" Moss Troopers," the proclamation formed a very important
element in the campaign, which led to the displacement of
Fremont by Hunter, through Lincoln's order which was sent
not to be delivered if the General had fought, was fighting,
or was about to fight a battle.
39S filOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAlJ.
In obedience to Fremont's order shortly before his career
was cut short, G-eneral Grant was preparing for a demonstra-
tion against Columbus, Ky., a strongly fortified bluff where
General Polk was in command, and whence, it was reported,
re-enforcements were being sent to Price. By directions from
headquarters, about the same date, he sent out two small
detachments under Colonels Oglesby and W, H. L. Wallace
respectively, with a view to drive Jeff Thompson out of Mis-
souri. When all was ready. Grant started the expedition
down the river, under McClemand and Smith, and early in
the morning of Nov. 7, learning that a large force of the rebels
had crossed and camped near the village of Belmont, on the
Missouri side, he decided to strike them there. The force
was landed without difficulty, and Colonel Logan's regiment
of McClernand's Brigade, was placed upon the left.
General Grant, in a letter to his father, described the affair
as follows :
" Day before yesterday, I left Cairo with about 3,000 men,
in five steamers, convoyed by two gunboats, and proceeded
down the river to within about twelve miles of Columbus ; next
morning the boats were dropped down just out of range of the
enemy's batteries and the troops debarked. During this opera-
tion, our gunboats exercised the rebels by throwing shells
into their camps and batteries. When all ready, we pro-
ceeded about one mile toward Belmont, opposite Columbus,
when I formed the troops into line and ordered two companies
from each regiment to deploy as skirmishers, and push on
through the woods and discover the position of the enemy.
They had gone but a little way when they were fired upon,
and the ball may be said to have fairly opened. The whole
command, with the exception of a small reserve, was then
deployed in like manner and ordered forward. The order was
obeyed with great alacrity, the men all showing great cour-
BELMONT, FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 399
age. I can say with great gratification that every colonel, with-
out a single exception, set an example to their commands that
inspired a confidence that will always insure victory, where
there is the slightest possibility of gaining one. I feel truly
proud to command such men.
" From here we fought our way from tree to tree through the
woods to Belmont, about two and a half miles, the enemy
contesting every inch of the ground. Here the enemy had
strengthened their position by felling the trees for two or three
hundred yards and sharpening their limbs, making a sort of
abatis.
" Our men charged through, making the victory complete,
giving us possession of the camp and garrison, equipages,
artillery, and everything else.
" We got a great many prisoners. The majority, however,
succeeded in getting aboard their steamers and pushing across
the river. We burned everything possible and started back,
having accomplished all that we went for and even more.
Belmont is entirely covered by the batteries from Columbus,
and is worth nothing as a military position — cannot be held
without Columbus.
" The object of the expedition was to prevent the enemy from
sending a force into Missouri to cut off troops I had sent there
for a special purpose, and to prevent re-enforcing Price. Besides
being well fortified at Columbus, their number far exceeded
ours, and it would have been folly to have attacked them.
We found the Confederates well armed and brave."
General Grant, in this brief letter to his father, does not
attempt to give the particulars of the contest. The fact was,
that after the Union troops had handsomely repulsed the rebels
in the face of a desperate resistance, which was gallantly over-
come by these Western soldiers, then most of them for the first
time under fire, there was a relapse from discipline which future
400 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
experience taught them must always be maintained when in
the territory of an enemy. Elated with victory, they pro-
ceeded to indulge in a kind of celebration of their success, and
abandoned themselves to the contemplation of the Confederate
camp which they had succeeded in capturing, together with a
large number of prisoners.
The rebels stationed at Columbus on the other side of the
river were not idle, however, nor unmindful of the situation.
Pushing across re-enforcements they formed between the
United States troops and the bank of the river where their
transports were moored, and completely surprised them when
ill prepared to meet an unexpected foe.
A panic threatened to seize the troops and undo the results
of their late victory. General Logan, however, was equal to
the occasion, and rallying his regiment, he charged through the
attacking column with the bayonet, and cleared the way for the
withdrawal of the Union forces. His horse was shot under him,
and the pistol at his side was shattered by a rebel bullet, but
the morale of the men was once more restored, and the day
was saved from disaster by Logan's coolness and bravery.
The Hon. Lewis Hanback, a Congressman from Kansas, at
the Soldiers and Sailors' Serenade to General Logan, at Wash-
ington, soon after his nomination for Vice-President, made a
speech, in the course of which he gave an account of Logan's
participation in this battle of which he was an eye-witness.
Said he :
" It was at Belmont that I first saw John A. Logan. There
were five regiments of us there, among them the 27th Illinois
Infantry, to which I belonged, and the 31st Illinois, Logan's
regiment. I remember the 27th, my regiment, held the right
of the line of battle. I was orderly-sergeant, and accord-
ingly was on the left of my regiment. On our immediate
left, and joining it, was the 31st. Logan sat on his big, black
BELMONT, FORT HENRY AND FORT DONELSON. 403
horse, therefore, nearly in front of me. Our colonel, a brave
and gallant man, too, he was, rode up to Logan, and said,
rather pompously : ' Colonel Logan, remember, if you please,
that I have the position of honor/ Without turning to right
or left, Logan instantly replied : ' I don't care a d — n where
I am, so long as I get into this fight,' And ' get into ' it he
soon did, as he fought his way up to and into the camp and
tore down the ensign of treason and planted in its stead the
flag of beauty and of glory."
The official report gave Colonel Logan the credit for his
splendid services and matchless bravery upon this occasion.
It says : " Colonel Logan's admirable tactics not only foiled
the frequent attempts of the enemy to flank him, but secured
a steady advance toward the enemy's camp."
Colonel Pearson, then a subordinate of Logan's regiment,
gives -an account of the affair at Belmont, in the course of
which he says : " Nearly every regiment then had a brass band,
and they were playing ' Hail Columbia' and ' Yankee Doodle,'
and McClernand made a speech and we were having a glo-
rious time. All this time the rebels were bringing troops across
the river between us and our transports. I remember when
Logan saw the position we were in, and McClernand saw it,
and the latter didn't know what to do, and made the remark :
'I don't know what we are going to do.'
" Logan said : ' You give me permission and I will show
you what I will do.'
" McClernand said : ' All right, you go ahead/
" Logan ordered his regiment to fall in, and we made a
charge and cut our way through the enemy and got back to
our transports. Logan had his horse killed under him and
was one of the last to get on the boat. All this I saw ; I
had a musket in my hand and helped make the charge, and
was one of those who did not. get injured in the fight, but
404 , BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
many were killed, of course. Logan had every chance in the
world, if he had been a disloyal man at that time, being the
first engagement, to have surrendered to the enemy."
The United States forces lost some 485 in killed, wounded
and missing, and General Grant placed the rebel casualties at
600, which General Polk's report shows were actually 41
greater. The rebels believing that the demonstration had
been intended as a serious attempt to capture Columbus re-
garded the affair as a great victory. Jefferson Davis sent his
congratulations ; General Albert Sidney Johnston said it would
be a bright page in the annals of the war ; the Confederate
Congress thanked Polk ; and the whilom bishop naturally
thanked the " overruling Providence."
This was General Grant's first battle in the rebellion, and
in the long line of engagements which followed from that day
until the fall of Vicksburg, he steadily showed his growing
appreciation of the gallantry and capacity of Logan. When-
ever he had a difficult task to perform he always preferred
to consign it to his charge, knowing that he would do the
best that intelligence and bravery could accomplish toward the
desired end.
There were two ideas which possessed the loyal people of
the Northern States in the early days of the war. One was
the capture of Richmond, and the other the opening of the
Mississippi River to free navigation. It was the gallantry of
the western army under General Grant and his splendid
corps commanders that accomplished the latter object. A
campaign was organized with this end in view, and the
army began with a series of uninterrupted victories under
their leaders who have since become famous for their military
achievements.
The first thing to be done was to dislodge the rebels from
two strongholds which they had made, at points where the
BELMONT, FORT HENBY, AND FORT DONELSON. 405
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers very nearly approached each
other, Forts Henry and Donelson.
In the campaign which resulted so brilliantly, Colonel
Logan bore a prominent part. He was with the force which
Grant sent up the Cumberland Eiver to strike Fort Henry.
His regiment did trying service on the expedition, and Logan
was the first to enter the abandoned fort. In command of a
detachment of cavalry he pursued the retreating Confederates,
and captured a battery of eight guns.
In the midst of stormy winter weather the Union troops
were moved across the country to invest Fort Donelson. This
work was much stronger than the other, and was vigorously
defended by the Confederates. The siege occupied three days,
during which time the soldiers endured the severest hardships
from hunger, snow, and sleet, and the difficulties attending
operations in a rough country covered with mud on which a
thin crust was frozen.
In the fighting before Donelson, Colonel Logan's regiment
was severely handled, losing fifty per cent, of its effective
force. On the afternoon of the third day they bore unflinch-
ingly for hours the withering fire of the enemy, and resisted
his attack until their cartridge-boxes were empty and they
had not another shot to deliver. The lieutenant-colonel and
senior captain were killed, and Colonel Logan himself was
severely wounded in the left arm and shoulder, and in the
thigh. He persisted in remaining at his post, however, en-
couraging the men and holding them up to their work, in spite
of the most desperate assaults upon his front and flank.
After the battle it was found that his wounds were so severe
as to seriously endanger his life for several weeks.
Greneral McClernand, commanding the first division, pays a
just tribute to Colonel Logan's services in the battles around
the fortress in the following terms :
406 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Schwartz's battery being left unsupported by the retirement of
the 29th, the 31st boldly rushed to its defense, and at the same
moment received the combined attack of the forces on the right
and of others in front, supposed to have been led by General
Buckner. The danger was imminent, and calling for a change
of disposition adapted to meet it, Colonel Logan made it by
forming the right wing of his battalion at an angle with the
left. In this order he supported the battery which continued to
play upon the enemy, and held him in check until his regiment's
supply of ammunition was entirely exhausted.
In his official report of the campaign, published in Vol. VII
Bebellion Records, Colonel Oglesby says :
Turning to the 31st, which held its place in line, I ordered
Colonel Logan to throw back his right, so as to form a crotchet
on the right of the 11th Illinois. In this way Colonel Logan
held in check the advancing foe for some time, under the most
destructive fire, whilst I endeavored to assist Colonel Cruft with
his brigade in finding a position on the right of the 31st. It was
now four hours since fighting began in the morning. The car-
tridge-boxes of the 31st were nearly empty. The Colonel had
been severely wounded, and the Lieutenant-Colonel John H.
White had, with some thirty others, fallen dead on the field,
and a large number wounded. In this condition Colonel Logan
brought off the remainder of his regiment in good order.
The fall of Fort Donelson was the first important Union
triumph, and the country was electrified by it. Grenerals
Grant and McClernand, Oglesby and Logan, and the other
commanders of the campaign were the heroes of the day.
An exultant poet at the time thus sang the glories of Illinois,
which appeared in the Boston Advertiser :
*'0h ! gales that dash th' Atlantic's swell
Along our rocky shore.
Whose thunders diapason well
New England's glad hurrahs —
BELMONT, FORT HENRY, AND FORT DONELSON. 409
Bear to the prairies of the West
The echoes of our joy.
The prayer that springs in every breast,
* God bless thee, Illinois ! '
Oh awful hours, when grape and shell
Tore through the unflinching line ;
' Stand firm, remove the men who fell.
Close up, and await the sign/
It came at last; 'Now, lads, the steel I*
The rushing hosts deploy ;
* Charge, boys ! ' — the broken traitors reel —
Huzzah for Illinois !
In vain thy rampart, Donelson,
The living torrent jars ;
It leaps the wall, the Fort is won.
Up go the Stripes and Stars.
Thy proudest mother's eyelids fill.
As dares her gallant boy.
And Plymouth Eock and Bunker Hill,
Shout, * Bless thee, Illinois!'"
These lines were generally copied by the Northern press.
Colonel Logan was one of four officers whom Major-General
Grant, in his letter to the Secretary of War, especially rec-
ommended for promotion for services at Fort Donelson. The
Greneral says :
I take this occasion to make some recommendations of ofiicers
who, in my opinion, should not be neglected. I would particu-
larly mention the names of Colonel J. D. Webster, 1st Illinois
Artillery ; Morgan L. Smith, 8th Missouri Volunteers ; W. H.
L. Wallace, 11th Illinois Volunteers; and John A. Logan, 31st
Illinois Volunteers. The two former are old soldiers, and men
of decided merit ; the two latter are from civil pursuits, but I
410 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
have no hesitation in fully endorsing them as in every way qual-
ified for the position of brigadier-general, and think they have
fully earned the position on the field of battle.
Logan was accordingly promoted for gallantry at Fort
Donelson to the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers.
He was confined for some time to his bed by the injuries
received in the campaign, but was so anxious to return to
the army that before his wounds were healed, and while
unable yet to wear a coat, he started for the front. To his
great disappointment he was only able to reach his command
on the evening of the second day at Shiloh, and hence did
not participate in that engagement.
He was given command of the First Brigade, Third Divi-
sion of the Seventeenth Army Corps, and in this capacity
moved out against Corinth. His impatience naturally
prompted him to push things against the enemy, and he was
in favor of capturing the place, instead of giving the rebels
time to evacuate it, as eventually transpired. After the
rebels fell back from this place, General Logan was occupied
in guarding the railroad leading to Jackson, and in rebuilding
it between the latter place and Columbus.
General Sherman acknowledged the signal services of Gen-
eral Logan at this time in his official report of the siege of
Corinth, in which he says :
General John A. Logan's brigade, General Judah's division of
McClemand's reserve corps, and General Veatch's brigade, of
Hurlbut's division, were placed subject to my orders, and took
an important part with my own division in the Operations of the
two following days, viz. May 28 and May 29, 1862 ; and I now
thank the officers and men of those brigades for the zeal and
enthusiasm they manifested and the alacrity they displayed in
the execution of every order given And further, I feel
feELMONf, FOtt*f HENfit, AND FORT DONELSON. 411
under special obligations to this oflacer. General Logan, who,
during the two da3''s he served under me, held critical ground on
my right, extending down to the railroad. All that time he had
in his front a large force of the enemy, but so dense was the
foliage that he could not reckon their strength save from what
he could see in the railroad track.
tn the meantime the devoted Army of the Potomac, under
its various commanders, suffered a succession of misfortunes,
the v/ar dragged, and there was much dissatisfaction through-
out the North. The Union cause began to look dark. The
active rebel sympathy in the North, under the lead of
Vallandigham and others, was discouraging to the people.
Many of General Logan's friends urged him to resign from
the army and run for Congress in his old district. There
was no such thing as a backward step with him, and he
spurned even the appearance of a withdrawal from the active
responsibility of his share in the crisis. He addressed a
letter, therefore, from Jackson, Tenn., to the Hon. 0. M.
Hatch, Secretary of State of Illinois, August 26, in which he
said :
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your compli-
mentary letter of the 18th inst., asking permission to use my
name in connection with that of Eepresentative for the Four-
teenth District of the State of Illinois.
In reply I would most respectfully remind you that a compli-
ance with your request on my part would be a departure from
the settled resolution with which I resumed my sword in defense
and for the perpetuity of a Government, the like and blessings
of which no other nation or age shall enjoy if once suffered to be
weakened or destroyed.
In making this reply, I feel that it is unnecessary to enlarge
as to what were, are, or may hereafter be my political views, but
would simply state that politics of every grade and character
4l2 felOGEA^HY Of CtEN. iTOflN A. tOGAN.
whatsoever are now ignored by me, since I am convinced that
the Constitution and life of this Eepublic, which I shall never
cease to adore, are in danger.
I express all my views and politics when I assert my attach-
ment for the Union. I have no other politics now, and conse-
quently no aspirations for civil place and power.
No ! I am to-day a soldier of this Eepublic, so to remain,
changeless and immutable, until her last and weakest enemy
shall have expired and passed away.
Ambitious men, who have not a true love for their country at
heart, may bring forth crude and bootless questions to agitate
the pulse of our troubled nation, and thwart the preservation of
this Union ; but for none of such am I. I have entered the
field, to die if need be, for this Government, and never expect
to return to peaceful pursuits until the object of this war of
preservation has become a fact established.
Whatever means it may be necessary to adopt, whatever local
interest it may affect or destroy, is no longer an affair of mine.
If any locality or section suffers or is wronged in the prosecution
of the war, I am sorry for it ; but I say that it must not be
heeded now, for we are at war for the preservation of the Union.
Let the evil be rectified when the present breach has been ce-
mented forever.
If the South by her malignant treachery has imperiled all that
made her great and wealthy, and it was to be lost, I would not
stretch forth my hand to save her from destruction, if she will
not be saved by a restoration of the Union. Since the die of her
wretchedness has been cast by her own hands, let the coin of
her misery circulate alone in her own dominions, until the peace
of union ameliorates her forlorn condition.
By these few words you may readily discern that my political
aspirations are things of the past, and I am not the character of
man you seek. No legislation in which I might be suffered to
take a feeble part will, in my opinion, suffice to amend the injury
already inflicted upon our country by these remorseless traitors.
Their policy for the dissolution of the Government was ini-
tiated in blood, and their seditious blood only can suffice to make
BELMONT, FORT HENRY, AND FORT DONELSON. 415
amends for the evil done. This Government must be preserved
for future generations in the same mold in which it was trans-
mitted to us, if it takes the last man and the last dollar of the
present generation within its borders to accomplish it.
For the flattering manner in which you have seen fit to allude
to my past services, I return you my sincere thanks ; but if it has
been my fortune to bleed and suffer for my dear country, it is all
but too little compared to what I am willing again and again to
endure ; and should fate so ordain it, I will esteem it as the
highest privilege a Just Dispenser can award, to shed the last
drop of blood in my veins for the honor of that flag whose em-
blems are justice, liberty, and truth, and which has been, and as
I humbly trust in God ever will be, for the right.
In conclusion, let me request that your desire to associate my
name with the high and honorable position you would confer
upon me be at once dismissed, and some more suitable and
worthy person substituted. Meanwhile I shall continue to look
with unfeigned pride and admiration on the continuance of the
present able conduct of our State affairs, and feel that I am
sufficiently honored while acknowledged as an humble soldier of
our own peerless State.
The unmistakable tone of this letter shows how he stood
upon the political questions of the day, and his unqualified
determination to put everything else in the background till
the Union was first saved.
CHAPTEK IV.
THE VICKSBUKG CAMPAIGN.
Logan made a Major-General of Volunteers. — Takes the advance in the
Northern Mississippi Campaign.— Develops capacity for eflfective organi-
zation.— Placed at the head of the Third Division of McPherson's Corps.
— Dispatched to Lake Providence. — The forced march down the river to
Hard Times. — Crosses the river and moves on to Port Gibson. — On to
Jackson. — Logan's own battle at Raymond. — Jackson captured. — The
battle of Champion Hills won by Logan. — What the Compte de Paris
says about his tactics there. — Pemberton withdraws behind the ramparts
of Vicksburg. — The siege. — Logan's soldiers blow up the redoubt and
charge the breach. -Given the honor of the advance in entering the cap-
tured city. — Made Military Governor. — Asked by President Lincoln to
come North and address the people.
THE rebels were still defiant in the West, notwithstanding
their repulse at Pittsburgh Landing, following the loss
of their strongholds in Tennessee, because the blockade of the
Mississippi River was maintained by the swamp-environed
fortress of Vicksburg, which had been seized and fortified early
in the war. It was the ambition of the Western army, under
Grrant, to compel its surrender, and the rebels bent every en-
ergy to hold it. For a year the hostile forces were maneuvering
about this as the objective point. A vigorous campaign was
planned in the fall of 1862 by the Union commander, which
had in view its ultimate investment, but the project failed
through the shameful cowardice of a subordinate officer, whose
action caused the destruction of the vast supplies gathered for
the support of the army.
In all the wearisome marches and sharp fighting through
Nprtheni Mississippi, Logan's command Jed the advance. His
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 417
troops composed the First Division of the Seventeenth Corps,
and his great capacity for organization resulted in making it
the most reliable in the army for efficient service and toilsome
duty, in marching and fighting. This splendid body of men
soon attracted the attention of General Grant, and for this
reason Logan's troops were called upon to show the way on all
occasions, with their restless commander at their head. When
the campaign was over the men came back to Memphis, in
December, tried veterans.
March 13, 1863, Logan was made a Major-General, to rank
from Nov. 29, 1862. Already, in January, 1863, he had been
placed in command of the Third Division of the Seventeenth
(McPherson's) Corps. By this time no officer in the service
had acquired greater prominence or was more trusted by
the soldiers. As usual, he turned his influence to good ac-
count for the cause of the Union. Those were dark days in
the winter of 1862-63, and faint hearts all over the North be-
gan to grow weary of the contest, the spirit of compromise
was rife, and the disloyal press and Southern sympathizers be-
came bolder day by day. The war was pronounced a failure,
the administration was attacked, and it took a brave faith to
see the dawn of a successful peace. The attitude of England
was such as to give moral support to the rebellion, and the
recognition of the Confederacy by the British government was
discussed everywhere, as the probable sequel to each success
of the enemy. (The Queen's government, by the way, still
seems to be much interested in our politics.) Even our old
ally, France, was against us, and Louis Napoleon was plotting
with Austria to plant an empire at our very doors. Only
semi-barbaric Eussia, of the strong powers, was our avowed
friend in these days of distress, and put to shame the ill-con-
cealed desire of England to see the disintegration of the great
Republic.
418 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Public sentiment seemed to be running against the Kepub-
lican party, which was recognized as the war party, the Dem-
ocrats having made the issue one of peaceable settlement with
secession by a complete surrender to the Jeff. Davis govern-
ment. There was discontent also in the army, taunted in the
hour of its reverses with the sneer that it was " fighting for
the nigger."
Under such circumstances. General Logan, from his cot in
the hospital, where illness contracted through exposure and
wounds detained him, issued the following address to his
troops :
My Fellow-Soldiers : Debility from recent illness has
prevented and still prevents me from appearing amongst you, as
has been my custom, and is my desire. It is for this cause I
deem it my duty to communicate with you now, and give you
the assurance that your general still maintains unshaken con-
fidence in your patriotism, devotion, and in the ultimate success
of our glorious cause.
I am aware that influences of the most discouraging and
treasonable character, well calculated and designed to render
you dissatisfied, have recently been brought to bear upon some
of you by professed friends. Newspapers, containing treasonable
articles, artfully falsifying the public sentiment at your homes,
have been circulated in your camps. Intriguing political trick-
sters, demagogues, and time-servers, whose corrupt deeds are but
a faint reflex of their more corrupt hearts, seem determined to
drive our people on to anarchy and destruction. They have
hoped, by magnifying the reverses of our arms, basely misrepre-
senting the conduct, and slandering the character of our soldiers
in the field, and boldly denouncing the acts of the constituted
authorities of the Government as unconstitutional usurpations,
to produce general demoralization in the army, and thereby reap
their political reward, weaken the cause we have espoused, and
aid those arch-traitors of the South to dismember our mighty
Eepubhc, and trail in the dust the emblem of our national unity.
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 421
greatness, and glory. Let me remind you, my countrymen, that
we are Soldiers of the Federal Union, armed for the preservation
of the Federal Constitution and the maintenance of its laws and
authority. Upon your faithfulness and devotion, heroism and
gallantry, depends its perpetuity. To us has been committed this
sacred inheritance, baptized in the blood of our fathers. We are
soldiers of a Government that has always blessed us with prosper-
ity and happiness.
It has given to every American citizen the largest freedom
and the most perfect equality of rights and privileges. It has
afforded us security in person and property, and blessed us until,
under its beneficent influence, we were the proudest nation on
earth.
We should be united in our efforts to put down a rebellion
that now, like an earthquake, rocks the nation from State to
State, and from center to circumference, and threatens to engulf
us all in one common ruin, the horrors of which no pen can
portray. We have solemnly sworn to bear true faith to this
Government, preserve its Constitution, and defend its glorious
flag against all its enemies and opposers. To our hands has
been committed the liberties, the prosperity and happiness of
future generations. Shall we betray such a trust ? Shall the
brilliancy of your past achievements be dimmed and tarnished
by hesitation, discord, and dissension, whilst armed traitors
menace you in front and unarmed traitors intrigue against you
in the rear ? We are in no way responsible for any action of
the civil authorities. We constitute the military arm of the
Government. That the civil power is threatened and attempted
to be paralyzed is the reason for resort to the military power.
To aid the civil authorities (not to oppose or obstruct) in the
exercise of their authority, is our oflBce ; and shall we forget this
duty, and stop to wrangle and dispute over this or that political
act or measure while the country is bleeding at every pore ; while
a fearful wail of anguish, wrung from the heart of a distracted
people, is borne upon every breeze, and widows and orphans are
appealing to us to avenge the loss of their loved ones who have
fallen by our side in defense of the old blood-stained banner, and
422 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
while the Temple of Liberty itself is being shaken to its very
center by the ruthless blows of traitors, who have desecrated our
flag, obstructed our national highways, destroyed our peace,
desolated our firesides, and draped thousands of homes in
mourning ?
Let us stand firm at our posts of duty and of honor, yielding
a cheerful obedience to all orders from our superiors, until by
our united efforts the Stars and Stripes shall be planted in every
city, town, and hamlet of the rebellious States. We can then
return to our homes, and through the ballot-box peacefully
redress all our wrongs, if any we have.
While I rely upon you with confidence and pride, I blush to
confess that recently some of those who were once our comrades
in arms have so far forgotten their honor, their oaths, and their
country as to shamefully desert us, and skulkingly make their
way to their homes, where like culprits they dare not look an
honest man in the face. Disgrace and ignominy (if they escape
the penalty of the law) will not only follow them to their dis-
honored graves, but will stamp their names and lineage with
infamy to the latest generation. The scorn and contempt of
every true man will ever follow those base men, who, forgetful
of their oaths, have, like cowardly spaniels, deserted their com-
rades in arms in the face of the foe, and their country in the
hour of its greatest peril. Every true-hearted mother or father,
brother, sister, or wife, will spurn the coward who could thus
not only disgrace himself, but his name and his kindred. An
indelible stamp of infamy should be branded upon his cheek,
that all who look upon his vile countenance may feel for him
the contempt his cowardice merits. Could I believe that such
conduct found either Justification or excuse in your hearts, or
that you would for a moment falter in our glorious purpose of
saving the nation from threatened wreck and hopeless ruin, I
would invoke from Deity, as the greatest boon, a comnaon grave
to save us from such infamy and disgrace.
The day is not far distant when traitors and cowards North
and South will cower before the indignation of an outraged
people. March bravely onward ! Nerve your strong anas to the
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 423
task of overthrowing every obstacle in the pathway of victory,
until with shouts of triumph the last gun is fired that proclaims
us a United People under the old flag and one Government !
Patriot soldiers ! This great work accomplished, the reward for
such service as yours will be realized ; the blessings and honors
of a grateful people will be yours.
John a. Logan,
Brigadier-General Commanding.
No one can, at this late day, read the fervid words of this
address without being stirred by the patriotism and lofty
motives it embodies. The spirit of a patriot soldier burns
throughout its impatient periods, and its effect upon those
war-worn veterans was electrical. It brought back the old
spirit that conquered at Donelson and Shiloh, and the hearts
of the soldiers leaped anew at the voice of their beloved
leader.
Stirring work was ahead, however. Logan's command was
dispatched to Lake Providence to dig the canal by which the
Union forces hoped to pass the frowning Cerberus that guarded
still the highway to the Gulf. When this project was
abandoned, Logan led the way again on that weary march,
without a day of rest to give time to the rebels to concentrate
their forces, to meet the new danger which menaced them.
From Milliken's Bend to Carthage and Perkins' Plantation,
and on to Hard Times they hurried, till they found the trans-
ports, which, manned by volunteers from Logan's division, had
run past the guns of Vicksburg in the night, and were waiting
to take them across to the eastern bank.
Logan's division was ferried across on May 1, and without
stopping to rest, tramped on toward Port Gibson, where
McClernand was vainly trying to beat back the rebels from
their strong position.
General Grant, in his official -report of this action, says :
424 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
McClernand, who was with the right in person, sent repeated
messages to me before the arrival of Logan to send Logan's and
Quimby's divisions to him. Osterhaus, of McClernand's corps,
did not move the enemy from the position occupied by him on
our left until Logan's division of McPherson's corps arrived.
However, as soon as the advance of McPherson's corps, Logan's
division, arrived, I sent one brigade of the division to the left.
By the judicious disposition made of this brigade, under the
immediate supervision of McPherson and Logan, a position was
obtained giving us an advantage which drove the enemy from
that part of the field to make no further stand south of Bayou
Pierre, and the enemy was here repulsed with a heavy loss in
killed, wounded, and prisoners. He was pursued toward Port
Gibson ; but night closing in, and the enemy making the appear-
ance of another stand, the troops slept upon their arms until
daylight. Major Stolbrand, with a section of one of General
Logan's batteries, had the pleasure of firing the last shot at the
retreating enemy across the bridge on the north fork of Bayou
Pierre, just at dusk on that day.
General Pemberton began to be very much concerned, and
foresaw that he was liable at last to be checkmated. He tele-
graphed to General Joseph E. Johnston that night, that the
Union forces could all cross from Hard Times to Bruinsburg,
and that he needed heavy re-enforcements. He announced that
the movement threatened Jackson, the capital of Mississippi,
and if it was successful, Vicksburg and Port Hudson would
be cut off.
Port Gibson was abandoned during the night by the rebels,
who retreated across Bayou Pierre, burning the bridges in front
of the United States forces.
General Adam Badeau says :
Grant immediately detached one brigade of Logan's division
to the left, to engage the attention of the rebels there, while a
heavy detail of McClernand's troops were set to work rebuilding
fai! ViCfeSBURG CAMPAIGN. 427
the bridge across the South Fork. . . . While this was doing,
two brigades of Logau's division forded the bayou and marched
on. . . . Meanwhile another division (Crocker's) of McPherson's
corps had been ferried across the Mississippi and . . . had come
up with the command. . . . Grant now ordered McPherson to
push across the bayou and attack the enemy in flank, in full
retreat through Willow Springs, demoralized and out of ammu-
nition. McPherson started at once, and before night his two
divisions had crossed the South Fork and marched to the North
Fork, eight miles farther on. They found the bridge at Grind-
stone Ford still burning, but the fire was extinguished and the
bridge repaired in the night, the troops passing over as soon as
the last plank was laid. This was at 5 A. M. on the 3d. Before
one brigade had finished crossing, the enemy opened on the head
of the column with artillery; but the command was at once
deployed, and the rebels soon fell back, their movement being
intended only to cover the retreating force. McPherson followed
rapidly, driving them through Willow Springs, and gaining the
cross-roads. Here Logan was directed to take the Grand Gulf
road, while Crocker continued the direct pursuit. Skirmishing
was kept up all day ; the broken country, the narrow, tortuous
roads and impassable ravines, offering great facilities for this
species of warfare. The enemy availed himself fully of every
advantage, contesting the ground with great tenacity. This
continued all the way to Hankinson's Ferry, on the Big Black
Eiver, fifteen miles from Port Gibson. Several hundred pris-
oners were taken in the pursuit. At four o'clock in the afternoon
McPherson came up with the rebels, and Logan at the same time
appearing on their right flank, caused them to move precipitously
toward the river. McPherson followed hard, and arrived just as
the last of the rebels were crossing, and in time to prevent the
destruction of the bridge. It being now dark, and the enemy
driven across the Big Black, the command was rested for the
night.
Again it was found that the rebels had made good use of the
darkness and abandoned Grand Gulf, after blowing up the
428 BIOGRAPSY 01' GEN. JOHN A. LOSAlf.
magazines and spiking the cannon, leaving thirteen he^ty
guns to fall into the hands of the victors. On this day, the
3rd of May, General Grant telegraphed to General Sherman,
who had been left above at Milliken's Bend, that Logan was
on the main road to Jackson, and McPherson, followed closely
by McClernand, was en route on a branch of the same road,
leading from Willow Springs, informing him triumphantly
that the way to Vicksburg was now open.
On the 12th General Logan had a battle (described by
General Grant as "one of the hardest small battles of the
war") all to himself His division was alone engaged, and
came up with two brigades of the enemy, strongly posted in
a piece of timber about three miles from the town of Eaymond.
The rebels fell back, after some sharp fighting, to Fainden's
Creek, where they made a desperate stand and bravely met
the charging troops, with Logan at their head. The banks of
the creek furnished them a natural breastwork, and their fire
swept an open field in front. Logan led his division on with
a rush, and the rebels gave way and fled in the wildest con-
fusion, throwing away their arms in their flight ; but they
did not abandon the contest till they had inflicted a loss upon
the attacking column amounting to 69 killed, 341 wounded,
and 32 missing.
In leading the charge Logan's horse was killed by a burst-
ing shell.
Two days later Logan was with McPherson at the capture
of Jackson, where Pemberton's fears were fully realized in the
defeat of " Joe " Johnston's army, which lost all its artillery,
and 845 men in killed, wounded and prisoners. The Stars and
Stripes were flung out to the breeze where they had not been
seen for two years, and the victorious troops moved on in
their work of closing around Vicksburg.
Johnston having been whipped, the Federal leader now
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 429
turned his attention to Pemberton. In pursuance of this
plan, on the 16th was fought the battle of Champion Hills,
and that eminent authority, the Comte de Paris, in his
" History of the Civil War in America," characterizes it as
the most important in its results of any conflict up to that
time, between the forces of the United States and the insur-
gents. He furthermore gives General Logan the credit of
securing the victory.
Pemberton occupied a strong position upon an eminence
covered by dense woods, but he was growing desperate as the
coil was steadily tightening about him, and aware of the ad-
vance of several divisions of the Union Army to attack him,
he decided not to await the onslaught in full force, but to him-
self assumes the offensive. He massed his columns, therefore,
and fell heavily upon Hovey's division.
The high timbered ridge called Champion Hills was crossed
by a road which ran south towards Edwards Station, rising
some seventy feet above the adjacent country. Its top was
bare, and here the rebel artillery was planted. The wooded
sides of the ridge were cut by deep ravines, opening on the
north into cultivated fields on a slope toward Baker's Creek,
about a mile away. The position, on a larger scale, was not
unlike King's Mountain, where the Virginians and "Over-
Mountain Men " annihilated Ferguson in 1780.
The entire rebel line extended southward along the crest
for about four miles, covering the Middle, or Kaymond road,
while the right was on the southern road, with the left rest-
ing on Champion Hills, which was the key to the position.
In his description of this battle, Badeau says :
Continuous firing had been kept up all the morning between
Hovey's skirmishers and the rebel advance ; and by eleven o'clock
this grew into a battle. At this time Hovey's division was
deployed to move westward, against the hill, the two brigades of
430 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Logan supporting him. Logan was formed in the open field,
facing the northern side of the ridge, and only about four hun-
dred yards from the enemy ; Logan's front and the main front of
Hovey's division being nearly at right angles with each other.
As Hovey advanced, his line conformed to the shape of the hill,
and became crescent-like, the concave toward the hill. McPherson
now posted two batteries on his extreme right, and well in
advance; these poured a destructive enfilading fire upon the
enemy, under cover of which the National line began to mount
the hill. The enemy at once replied with a murderous discharge
of musketry ; and the battle soon raged hotly all along the line,
from Hovey's extreme left to the right of Logan ; but Hovey
pushed steadily on, and drove the rebels back six hundred yards,
till eleven guns and three hundred prisoners were captured, and
the brow of the height was gained. The road here formed a
natural fortification, which the rebels made haste to use. It was
cut through the crest of the ridge at the steepest part, the bank
on the upper side commanding all below; so that even where the
National troops had apparently gained the road, the rebels stood
behind this novel breastwork covered from every fire, and masters
still of the whole declivity. These were the only fortifications
at Champion Hills, but they answered the rebels well.
******
For a while, Hovey bore the whole brunt of the battle, and
after a desperate resistance was compelled to fall back, though
slowly and stubbornly, losing several of the guns he had taken
an hour before. But Grant . . . sent in a brigade of Crocker's
division, which had Just arrived. Those fresh troops gave
Hovej confidence, and the height, that had been gained with
fearful loss, was still retained.
******
Meanwhile, the rebels had made a desperate attempt on their
left to capture the battery in McPherson's corps which was doing
them so much damage ; they were, however, promptly repelled
by Smith's brigade of Logan's division, which drove them back
with great slaughter, capturing many prisoners. Discovering
now that his own left was nearly turned, the enemy made a
THE VICKSBUEG CAMPAIGN. 433
determined efifort to turn the left of Hovey, precipitating on that
commander all his available force ; and, while Logan was carry-
ing everything before him, the closely-pressed and nearly ex-
hausted troops of Hovey were again compelled to retire. They
had been fighting nearly three hours, and were fatigued and out
of ammunition ; but fell back doggedly and not far. The tide
of battle at this point seemed turning against the National forces,
and Hovey sent back repeatedly for support. Grant, however,
was momentarily expecting the advance of McClernand's four
divisions, and never doubted the result. . . . That commander,
however, did not arrive ; and Grant, seeing the critical condition
of affairs, now directed McPherson to move what troops he could,
by a left flank, around to the enemy's right front, on the crest of
the ridge. The prolongation of Logan to the right had left a
gap between him and Hovey, and into this the two remaining
brigades of Crocker were thrown. The movement was promptly
executed. Boomer's brigade went at once into the right, pouring
a well-directed fire, and the victorious troops of Hovey and
Crocker pressing on, the enemy once more gave way ; the
rebel line was rolled back for the third time, and the battle
decided.
Before the result of the final charge was known, Logan rode
eagerly up to Grant, declaring that if one more dash could be
made in front, he would advance in the rear, and complete the
capture of the rebel army. Grant at once rode forward in person,
and found the troops that had been so gallantly engaged for
hours withdrawn from their most advanced position, and refilling
their cartridge-boxes. Explaining the position of Logan's force,
he directed them to use all dispatch, and push forward as rapidly
as possible. He proceeded himself in haste to what had been
Pemberton's line, expecting every moment to come up with the
enemy, but found the rebels had already broken and fled from
the field. Logan's attack had precipitated the rout, and the
battle of Champion Hills was won.
If Logan's plan had been carried out promptly and the
movement made at the instant, there seems to be every reason
434 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
to believe that Pemberton's whole army could have been
annihilated then and there.
In discussing the comparative results of this contest the
Comte de Paris uses the following language :
The battle of Champion Hills, considering the number of
troops engaged, could not compare with the great conflicts we
have already mentioned, but it produced results far more impor-
tant than most of those great hecatombs, like Shiloh, Fair Oaks,
Murfreesborough, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsyille, which
left the two adversaries fronting each other, both unable to resume
the fight. It was the most complete defeat the Confederates had
sustained since the commencement of the war. They left on the
field of battle from three to four thousand killed and wounded,
three thousand able-bodied prisoners, and thirty pieces of artil-
lery. But these figures can convey no idea of the magnitude of
the check experienced by Pemberton, from which he could not
again recover. . . . This battle was the crowning work of the
operations conducted by Grant with ecLual audacity and skill
since his landing at Bruinsburg. In outflanking Pemberton's
left along the slopes of Champion Hills he had completely cut off
the latter from all retreat north. Notwithstanding the very
excusable error he had committed in stopping Logan's movement
for a short time, the latter had through this maneuver secured
victory to the Federal army.
Like a fox driven to earth before hounds he could not
evade, Pemberton sought safety, with his shattered army,
within the ramparts of Vicksburg. His forces amounted to
about thirty-three thousand men, while the United States
troops had been depleted, by whipping two armies and hard
marching, to less than forty thousand. On the 19th the place
was completely surrounded, from the Yazoo to the Mississippi.
McClemand occupied the left, Sherman the right, and McPher-
son the center of the victorious army of investment.
The works consisted of a succession of detached forts on
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 435
commanding positions, connected by rifle pits. The entire
line extended for seven or eight miles, and in its front was
a wilderness of deep ravines and gullies, covered with tangled
undergrowth and heavy timber. To make the approach more
formidable trees had been felled, forming an impenetrable abatis.
On the river front there were heavy water batteries in position.
The irregular works were only from seventy-five to three hun-
dred yards apart, and had been placed at the most commanding
points for defense. It was, in fact, impregnable to any enemy
but starvation, as it stood the day the Union forces closed in
around it.
In spite of the strength of the ramparts which Pemberton's
forces manned. General Grant decided upon a simultaneous
assault at once, and at 2 o'clock that afternoon the attacking
army rushed against their foe. It was a vain efibrt, however,
so far as the immediate capture of the place was concerned,
but the Federal troops were enabled to seize advanced posi-
tions, near the enemy's fortifications, which were held, and
when the assault failed they settled down very much closer to
the redoubts than they were when they started. General
Grant lost some five hundred men in the effort, but he was
convinced that the situation demanded another trial, and on
the 22d a second general assault along the entire front, at 10
o'clock in the forenoon, in conjunction with a bombardment
by Porter's fleet in front, and all the land batteries, was ordered.
" At three o'clock on the morning of the 22d," says Badeau,
" the cannonade began from the land side; every available gun
was brought to bear on the works; sharp-shooters at the same
time began their part of the action, and nothing could be
heard but the continued shrieking of shells, the heavy boom-
ing of cannon, and the sharp whiz of the minie-balls, as they
sped with fatal accuracy towards the devoted town. Vicks-
burg was encircled by a girdle of fire; on river and shore a line
436 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
of miglity cannon poured destruction from their fiery throats,
while the mortars played incessantly, and made the heavens
themselves seem to drop down malignant meteors on the rebel-
lious stronghold. The -bombardment was the most terrible
during the siege, and continued without intermission until
nearly eleven o'clock, while the sharp-shooters kept up such a
rapid and galling fire that the rebel cannoneers could seldom
rise to load their pieces ; the enemy was thus able to make
only ineffectual replies, and the formation of the columns of
attack was undisturbed. '^ * "-'" This assault was, in some
respects, unparalleled in the wars of modern times. No attack
on fortifications of such strength had ever been undertaken by
the great European captains unless the assaulting party out-
numbered the defenders by at least three to one."
The United States forces lost three thousand men in this
abortive effort.
It has been urged as a criticism upon this operation that
General Grant knew it was futile to attempt to storm such a
place, and hence it was a useless sacrifice to try. It may be
that he did not hope to succeed, but the spade had been
brought into disgrace by McClellan, and it is doubtful if the
soldiers would have settled down to a siege without demon-
strating first its necessity. It is problematical, too, whether
the people would not have clamored for the speedy realization
of their desire for the capture of Vicksburg, without a return-
to the ancient methods of warfare before walled cities, unless
shown that it was impossible. However, the experience of Grant,
like that of the Kussians at Plevna, demonstrated the utter
inability of an army on the outside to dislodge a determined
foe, armed with modern weapons, from a fortress by assault.
In these assaults, and during the fighting of that historic
siege, Logan was always at the front with his division. His
command was stationed opposite the chief redoubt of the
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 439
rebels, and his troops mined, blew it up, and then rushed into
the breach in the desperate struggle that ensued. He was
ever vigilant and aggressive, and so conspicuous was his hero-
ism that his division was chosen to lead the entrance of the
Union army into the beleaguered citadel after it had fallen.
He was never satisfied to see his men exposed to dangers
which he did not share. The Adjutant-General's headquarters
were back about a mile, but he had two large tents moved up
for his headquarters on the line. The officers called it
" Logan's fighting headquarters," and tried to persuade him
to move back, but he declared he intended to stay there, and
stay he did, sleeping there as well, while the rebels threw
nine-inch shells from a big gun called "Whistling Dick," into
the camp without cessation. Finally, he had two nine-inch
columbiads brought up and put in position within fifty feet
of his tent, and sending to the fleet for a detachment of " Blue
Jackets " to work them, he threw back metal of the same
calibre as came from "Whistling Dick." Not a dozen rounds
had been fired before the big gun of the enemy was knocked
ofi" its carriage and silenced forever.
A volume might be filled with anecdotes of Logan during
the struggle, did space permit. He advised Grant to make
another assault upon the 6th of July, believing that then the
enemy must succumb, but the necessity of the attack was re-
moved by the appearance of the flag of truce for the surrender
three days before that time. He was present when Grant and
Pemberton met to discuss the capitulation. ,
Says the Comte de Paris : " Logan's division was the first
to enter Vicksburg ; " and his comment is : " It had fully
deserved this honor. Grant rode at the head."
Says Badeau ; '• Logan's division was one of those which had
approached nearest the rebel works,' and now was the first to
enter the town. It had been heavily engaged in both assaults,
440 BIOGBAPHir OF GiJlf. JOHN A. LOGAN.
and was fairly entitled to this honor. The Forty-fifth Illinois
Infantry marched at the head of the column, and placed its
battle-torn flag on the court-house of Vicksburg. Grant rode
into the town, with his staff, at the head of Logan's division/'
General Logan was made Military Governor of the captured
city, after the surrender of its garrison of 31,600 men. The
capture included 2,153 officers, of whom 15 were generals,
and 172 cannon, which, as General Grant stated, was " the
largest capture of men and material ever made in war."
All honor to the brave and true.
Who fought the bloody battles through.
And from the ramparts victory drew
Where Vicksburg cowers ;
And o'er the trenches, o'er the slain,
Through iron hail and leaden rain.
Still plunging onward, might and main,
" Made Vicksburg ours."
Wave, wave your banners in the sky.
The glory give to God on high.
In lofty praises far outvie all other powers,
Who nerved the arms that struck the blow.
Which in vain o'erwhelmed the foe.
And laid his frowning bulwarks low,
"Made Vicksburg ours."*
The Board of Honor of the Seventeenth Corps presented
Logan with a gold medal, on which was inscribed the names
of their battles.
Being a man of the people, and of such impassioned
eloquence upon the stump, President Lincoln asked him to
come north and make a few speeches. The President said he
needed him to fight " copperheads " in the rear, and, in point
of fact, so bitter was the opposition of the Southern sym-
* Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly.
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 441
pathizers that desertions were stimulated, and the loyal
people needed encouragement to bear their burdens. After
adjusting affairs at Vicksburg, Logan came as requested, and
addressed mass meetings all over Illinois, many times in the
face of threats that he would be killed, if he attempted to speak,
by the Knights of the Golden Circle, against whose infamy he
battled with all his power of argument and fierce denunciation.
In the course of his speech at the Chicago mass meeting,
in August, he said :
If every man in this country is called an Abolitionist that is
willing to fight for and sustain his Government, let him be called
so. If belonging to the United States and being true and valiant
soldiers, meeting the steel of Southern revolutionists, marching to
the music of this Union, loving the flag of our country and stand-
ing by it in its severest struggles— if that makes us Abolitionists,
let all of us be Abolitionists. If it makes a man an Abolitionist
to love his country, then I love my country, am willing to live for
it, and wilHng to die for it. If it makes a man an Abolitionist
to love and revere that flag, then, I say, be it so. If it makes a
man an Abolitionist to love to hear the "^Star-Sjjangled Banner"
sung, and be proud to hear that such words were ever penned,
or could ever be sung upon the battle-field by our soldiers, then
I am proud to be an Abolitionist, and I wish to high Heaven
that we had a million more ; then our rebellion would be at an
end, and peace would again fold her gentle wings over a united
people, and the old Union, the old friendship, again make happy
the land where now the rebel flag flaunts dismally in the sultry
Southern air.
**** ** ***
Let it not be said that those glorious boys who now sleep be-
neath the red clay of the South or the green sod of our own loved
State have died in vain. Let those who are traducing the soldiers
of the Government know the enormity of their crime and their
error ; try to reclaim them and bring them back to duty and
honor. If they heed not your appeals, if they stiU persist in
their error and heresies, if they will not aid in maintaining the
442 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Government and laws that protect them, and continue in their
wicked aid and encouragement to this rebellion, send them to
the other side where they belong ; for the man \^ho can live in
this peaceful, happy and prosperous land and not be loyal and
true to it, ought, like Cain, to be branded by an indelible mark
and banished forever from his native paradise. No traitor, no
sympathizer, no man who can lisp a word in favor of this rebel-
lion or impair the chances of the Union cause, is fit for any
other ruler than Jeff Davis. He should be put in front of the
Union army, where he will get justice. [Applause.]
The man that can to-day raise his voice against the Constitu-
tion, the laws of the Government, with the design of injuring or
in any way obstructing their operation, should, if I could pass
sentence upon him, be hung fifty cubits higher than Haman, until
his body blackened in the sun and his bones rattled in the wind.
In bidding you good-night — I trust I do so to loyal, good,
true-hearted citizens and patriots, who love the country — it is in
the hope that you all may reflect upon the duties of all men to
their country in the hour of peril, and determine with renewed
zeal and fervor to give such aid and assistance to the Govern-
ment and army of the United States, in the prosecution of this
war, as will cause that banner again to float in triumph upon every
hill and mountain-top and in every vale, from the North to the
South, from East to West.
The effect of these addresses upon the sentiment of the
North was most striking, and the fires of patriotism and new
courage were kindled all over the West especially.
CHAPTER V.
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN.
Logan in command of tlie Fifteentli Corps. — In winter quarters at Hunts-
ville. — The "Snapper of the Whip." — The attempt to flank the rebels at
Dalton. — The day before Kesaca. — Logan urges McPlierson to let him
charge a fort. — He disturbs the rest of a fellow-soldier. — The battle of Re-
saca. — Swimmers wanted. — Bloody repulse of the Confederates. — Forward,
by the Eight Flank. — The famous " battle without orders," at Dallas. —
General Geo. A. Stone's description of the day. — Logan's coolness under
fire. — Drives the rebels at the Big Kenesaw. — Opposes useless slaughter at
Little Kenesaw. — Charges a blufl\ — Crosses the Chattahoochee. — At Mari-
etta.— On to Decatur. — In line before Atlanta. — The great battle of July 22.
— The death of McPhersou. — Logan assumes command of the Army of
the Tennessee and repulses Hood. — A broken promise. — A movement in
the dark. — Howard in command. — The Fifteenth Corps unsupported at
Ezra Chapel. — The battle of Jonesboro. — Hood allowed to escape. — The
army in camp. — A story of the campaign around Atlanta.
"TTTHEN General Grant was raised to the rank of Lieuten-
V V ant-General, Slierman was, given the Military Division
of the Mississippi, embracing the Armies of the Tennessee, the
Cumberland, and the Ohio. In November, 1863, Logan was
placed in command of the Fifteenth Corps, which both Grant
and Sherman had in turn previously commanded, and the
ensuing winter was spent at Huntsville, Ala., in active prepa-
ration for the Georgia campaign of the following spring, which
was all carefully planned by Grant before he went East.
Here, by Logan's order, the corps adopted the famous badge
of a cartridge-box bearing the legend "40 rounds."
Early in May, 1864, the Army of the Tennessee, composed
of Logan's, Dodge's and Blair's corps, under McPherson,
446 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
began its co-operation with Sherman's advance movement,
which was aimed at Atlanta. This army was Sherman's
flanking column, which he designated as " the snapper of the
whip with which he proposed to punish the enemy." In this
service it underwent all the vicissitudes incident to constant
marching on either flank, accompanied by terrible fighting,
from the start up to the final investment of the rebel strong-
hold.
The first operation was an attempt to flank the rebel posi-
tion at Dalton and Buzzard's Boost, by a movement to the
right by Snake Creek Gap, to cut the railroad to Eesaca. The
attempt was unsuccessful, because it was found that Sher-
man's combined army would be necessary to drive the rebels
from their strongly entrenched position.
On the 13th of May the general movement against Eesaca
was made, Logan's corps in the advance. It was his duty to
make the assault upon the enemy's position, and he found him
first, in front of the Second Division, where across an open field
the rebels were posted in the timber. The skirmishers swept
across the field, driving the rebels before them, led by General
Logan in person. Two divisions pushed into the timber on
the left of the Second, and Dodge moved his corps from-the
ferry road, down through the timber, to fill up a gap which
remained between the Fifteenth Corps and the Oostanaula
Kiver. General Morgan L. Smith, who had moved to the
right, entered the timber covering the hills in his front, and
pushed rapidly forward.
The whole Fifteenth Corps now advanced and drove the
enemy a mile and a half, taking the hiUs which they had been
ordered to charge, thus securing a position overlooking Resaca
and the bridges across the river. Logan wanted to push ahead
at once, before the enemy had time to consolidate in his front,
but he was ordered to entrench upon a line to the rear of his
•The GEORGIA dAMtAldlf. 447
advance, where he had thrown his troops across the only line
of escape for the rebels.
The rest of that day was occupied in perfecting the line,
throwing up breastworks, and putting batteries in position,
while skirmishers and pickets along the front kept up a desul-
tory fire until dark.
An officer who was an eye-witness of the occurrences, writing
in the New York Tribune, gives the following account of the
situation :
Logan belonged to the class of popular volunteer generals,
and in the West was regarded somewhat as Phil Kearny was in
tlie East. He had all the daring, dash and pugnacity of Kearny
and Hooker. I was with him nearly all the day before the battle
of Resaca, Georgia, on May 14, 1864, and slept in an ambulance
with him the same night — that is, I slept part of the night
in the ambulance — but he was so mad when awake, and so rest-
less when sleeping, that, for my own comfort, I got up and lay
down under the wagon on the ground. I never saw a madder
man than Logan was that day and night. He had the advance
of McPherson's corps on a flank movement around the left of the
rebel army at Dalton, and bad planted his division square across
their only line of retreat. Just beyond a small fordable stream
the rebels had built a fort commanding a bridge of great impor-
tance to the rebels, and Logan was preparing to assault it when
McPherson, his corps commander, came up and stopped the
movement, deeming it hazardous. Logan said he could carry the
Avorks with a single brigade and destroy the bridge with his two
other brigades, thus cutting off the rebel retreat and forcing him
to battle with Sherman's 100,000 men — quite double that of the
rebel force. He pleaded with McPherson to let him go ahead,
proposing to lead the assaulting column in person. From plead-
ing he advanced to protestations, and then to curses " both loud
and deep," and these became almost denunciations of McPherson,
when deciding against an attack, he ordered Logan to march
back to a strong defensive position and fortify it. It happened
that I heard part of this rather stormy interview, and the same
448 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
eTening General McPherson took occasion to explain to me that
he had made this retrograde movement in obedience to imperative
orders. It turned out to be one of the grave mistakes of the war,
and Sherman severely criticised McPherson afterwards for not
taking the risk suggested by Logan, though he sustained him in
command. Logan's instinct for fighting proved correct on that
occasion ; it was subsequently discovered that the rebel fort at
Eesaca was held by only 1, 600 dismounted Georgia militia cavalry-
men. Logan's veterans could have "run over them" if McPher-
son had let 'em loose with " Black Jack " at their head.
The next day General Logan was commanded to move in
force upon the rebel works. Between his troops and the Con-
federate position ran a deep stream called Camp Creek, over
which there were no bridges in his front. Logan called for
swimmers, directing the men to strip off, plunge into the
stream, and make for the other shore. A hot fire from the
batteries was opened to cover the movement, but rebel artillery
and sharpshooters made the undertaking extremely hazardous.
In order to nerve the soldiers for tke exploit, the General him-
self, drawing his boots and throwing off coat and vest, was
the first man in the water striking out for the opposite bank.
The clothing and accoutrements of the soldiers were drawn
over by ropes, and in fifteen minutes the skirmish line was clad
in its proper habiliments and deployed, covering the crossing of
the two brigades of General Charles E. Wood and Giles
A. Smith, which had been directed to take the advance. At
six o'clock the skirmishers were at the foot of the hills driving
the enemy before them, and the whole force of the two brigades,
which had been formed under cover of the bank, arose and
deployed at a double-quick, uncovering the position of the
Confederates, displaying seven regimental colors. They were
advancing in column by regiments, and it was evident that in
a few minutes they would strike the small command Logan
I
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 451
had, with overwlielming force. It was a perilous position for
the two brigades, and Logan hurried along the front, steadying
his lines and directing the men to hold their fire until the
enemy was within sixty yards. In obedience to his directions,
the rebels were allowed to advance until they were within two
hundred feet of the Union line, when Logan's troops, sud-
denly rising, delivered a volley at a single crash, which shat-
tered the ranks of the advancing host. In an instant the as-
saulting columns fell back, but reformed and came on again
and again in the flice of coolly directed volleys, which mowed
them in swaths. They attempted to turn Logan's flank, but
were driven back again, with great loss. The Union troops
pressed forward, and, as darkness closed in upon the scene,
were in possession of the works which made Kesaca untenable.
Before daylight it was found that the Confederates had
abandoned the place as the result of the movement. In the
desperate resistance which the Union troops made to the rebel
assaults they lost some 500 men, while over 2,000 of the Con-
federates were placed liors de combat.
Logan thus opened the series of operations which con-
tinued with almost daily fighting until Atlanta was in-
vested.
For the next two weeks there was continuous marching and
fighting, the combined armies steadily pressing on towards the
coveted seat of Confederate supplies. Still moving by the
right flank, Logan's corps found the enemy in position near
Dallas, May 27. The next day was fought the famous
"battle without orders," known in history as the battle of
Dallas, won by the Murat of the Army of the Tennessee.
Brigadier-General Greo. A. Stone, in a letter published in
a recent issue of the press, gives the following graphic
description of the defeat of Hardee's corps on that occa-
sion;
452 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Mount Pleasant, Ia,, Jan. 17. '
To the Editor :
In the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette is an article entitled
" Fighting a Battle Without Orders," to this effect : That General
Logan had referred in one of his recent speeches in the Fitz John
Porter case to some battle fought without orders in the vicinity
of Atlanta ; that as it was not identified by name effort was made
by the correspondent to identify it, and he visited General Sherman
for that purpose; that General Sherman replied that he had not
read General Logan's speech, hence could not say to which partic-
ular battle he referred ; he had no doubt such an event occurred ;
his lines at times were fourteen miles long, and there were many
days in which there was hard fighting ; that orders were to fight
whenever a chance offered ; that " it was fight all the time, a con-
stant order, so to speak, to strike a head whenever it appeared,"
etc.
Being present at this battle, which has attracted considerable
attention, and attempts being made to identify it, I can tell some-
thing about it. General Logan is the hero of this battle, and it
was one of the most brilliant of the many hard fights of his while
in command of the Fifteenth Corps. Our corps (the Fifteenth)
was in reserve that day.
A group of perhaps a dozen of us officers had accidentally met
and were laughing and talking about being in reserve. To think
that our corps — the Fifteenth Corps, Logan's corps, the corps
formerly commanded by General Sherman — was in reserve when
there was " beautiful fighting all along the line ! "
It was an odd sensation to us. It had never happened before.
Just then a staff officer, I think Col. McCoy, of General Sherman's
staff, joined us, and remarked that he had just left General Logan
"walking up and down like a caged hyena, growling at the
situation."
The position of our corps at this time was about this: our
right resting at a point about one-half mile to the rear and right
of the extreme right of the front line.
My command was on the extreme right of the Fifteenth Corps,
and was composed of the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 453
sixth. Thirtieth and Thirty-first Eegiments of Iowa infantry,
known as " the Iowa Brigade," but called officially " The Third
Brigade, First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps."
Our arms were all stacked in line of battle on the color-line,
with cartridge-boxes hanging on the bayonets. I have no data
before me by which to give the day ; but it was on one of those
days during the time we invested Atlanta.
About 1 o'clock p. m. the enemy made one of their vigorous
charges along the entire front line opposite our corps, and at the
same time a strong column of at least a division struck the ex-
treme right of the front line at right angles and in reverse, with
such impetuosity that the troops could not hold their position,
and the result was they were knocked down like ninepins.
The Confederates doubled up the front line and were capturing
the works rapidly. Our men were in such confusion that it was
evident this storming column must be forced back, and at once,
or everything in our front would give way before this splendid
Confederate attack.
At this moment was needed the superb bravery and military
genius of a captain able to realize the grand solemnity of the
occasion and competent to act without delay.
We had that captain. General John A. Logan was there, the
right man in the right place. He took in the situation at a glance,
and struck as strikes the thunderbolt.
In less time than I take to write this episode he fell upon this
Confederate host, taking them at the same disadvantage as they
had taken the front line, and was hurling them from the field as
with the " Sirocco of God's wrath."
At the time the Confederate attack began, my command, and,
I think, most of our corps, were lounging in idle confusion ;
but in ten minutes the scene changed as suddenly as, and
something like that gotten up for James Fitz James by Eoderick
Dhu.
General Logan appeared, galloping down the line in the direc-
tion of my brigade, sans staff, sans coat, shouting : " Fall in !
Forward ! "
With no time to put on my coat, I grasped my sabre, cut the
454 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
halter of the nearest horse, mounted, and followed the General,
echoing his words in hurrying my command to the rescue. When
Logan's voice was first heard, the men, catching the spirit of the
occasion, flew to the color-line, grasped the nearest musket, and
started for the front, unfixing bayonets, and slinging cartridge-
boxes to place as they ran, with their blouses left, as Bo Peep's
sheep did their tails, " behind them."
Inasmuch as my brigade was nearest the enemy, we were the
advance of the Fifteenth Corps in this charge.
I rode with General Logan, and hence, as intimated before, was
an eye witness.
En routp, to exclamations from the men, such as: ''Where
is our regiment? Where our ofiicers?" the General replied:
" D — u your regiments ! D — n your ofiicers ! Forward and yell
like h— 1 ! "
Then, ordering me to have my men yell and forward faster,
I called his attention to their almost deafening screams, and that
hundreds were keeping up, although his horse and mine were in
a gallop.
An amusing incident occurred in the wild charge — too good to
be lost — and many of my men afterwards laughed among them-
selves about it at the General's expense.
Nearing the battle-ground, an artilleryman with his caisson was
met in full retreat. Directing me to give him a pistol, General
Logan charged upon the batteryman, halted him, and, with the
pistol but a few inches from his head, said in about these words :
" — you, if you move— yes, if you move even a foot further to the
rear — I'll blow your brains out. Eight about that ammunition-
wagon and rejoin your command! " He did.
As the caisson turned and started to the front, the horses in a
gallop, my men laughed, screamed and yelled in delight, " Bully
for Logan."
As the General whipped the pistol towards the man's head, he
did it with such a spasmodic jerk that the cylinder flew some
yards away, and neither he nor the poor wretch discovered that
the weapon then was as dangerous as the old lady's musket, with-
out lock, stock, or barrel.
I
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 457
In a few moments we were on the ground, where there was
work to do.
Then, as if by inspiration, the entire command realized what
Logan meant by "D — n your regiments and oflBcers,"
He meant he could not waste those precious moments to form
a line as at dress-parade. Now it was, that the entire command,
regardless of officers and organizations being in place, sprang into
line like magic.
What mattered it now if divisions, brigades, and regiments were
all mixed up ?
We were all there, in shape for fighting, had our tools with us,
and Logan at the head in person.
You remember when Uncle Toby said over the sick Le Fevre :
"By God he shall not die," that the Eecording Angel, as he wrote
the charge in the Book of Life, dropped a tear and it was washed
away forever.
That is not, I believe, the usual system of book-keeping taught
in our commercial colleges, but this fact does not disprove any
different method in vogue above, and therefore no doubt General
Logan's account for that particular day was balanced as was
Uncle Toby's.
The Confederates could not withstand this sudden, unexpected,
resistless charge of Logan ; and, although they fought desperately
to maintain the advantage gained by their hard fighting, they
were soon in confusion and swept from the field. Our lines were
re-established and the day was won. Twice did the enemy re-
form and come back to the attack, but were repulsed each time
with considerable loss.
This is the battle mentioned by the Commercial as "Attracting
considerable attention and not identified." I account for
this :
First, General Logan being the hero of it, and fighting it with-
out orders, naturally felt some delicacy in making it too prominent
by a detailed report.
Second, as General Sherman says: "There was fighting in
that campaign all the time," hence the excitement of one battle
had not died away before a new one replaced it.
458 BIOGRAPHY OP GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
The third reason is an individual one, perhaps wrong, and
therefore I shall not mention it.
I doubt if a more daring battle, one more brilliantly conceived
and executed, one that prevented more dire disaster, occurred
during the Civil War, unless it be Sheridan's world-renowned
victory at Winchester.
In my opinion, had Logan's attack been delayed two hours the
enemy would have driven the front line from the field with great
loss to us in life, prisoners, guns, and ammunition.
It would have proved the worst " black eye " Sherman ever got,
and a day of sorrow to this country.
Contrast this conduct of Logan with that of Fitz John Porter
during those three dark days of General Pope.
*****
*
General McClellan's letter to General Porter, although inferen-
tial evidence, proves plainer than any circumstantial or prima facie
evidence on record his guilt, and to me is proof positive that
General Porter had deliberately made up his mind to sacrifice
General Pope. Therefore with me "the findings of the court
martial are proved." My position may appear inconsistent in
this : I uphold General Logan, and he disobeyed orders, or fought
without orders ; but reflect on the difference in war of refusing to
fight when ordered, or fighting when not ordered.
Logan's utter fearlessness in battle was such that his troops
stood in awe of him. How his life was spared was their con-
stant wonder. He would boldly ride between the fire of both
enemy and friend with as much indifference as if upon dress-
parade. He could calmly watch the sheet of flame leap out of
the tremendous crash of the enemy's volleys, as though he did
not know the storm of death was sweeping the field. Still, he
had felt the sting of the invisible bullet and the power of the
exploding shell. He was not like some great captains who
are never hit, but was aware that the missiles of the enemy do
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 459
not respect rank. Wellington's only scratch was a grazed
heel ; Grant was never touched, though fearless in his ex-
posure of himself ; Sheridan merely lost the heel of his boot
once, and the gallant Skobeleff escaped from all his battles
with merely a slight wound from a spent bullet, in the
trenches.
At Dallas, Logan was wounded again in the arm, but went
on with his duty, with the injured member in a sling.
General Sherman is reported to have told a story of an
occurrence, two days after the battle of Dallas, which illus-
trates his . coolness in danger. There was firing as usual in
front, and Logan was pointing out to Sherman and McPherson
the position of the enemy. A sharpshooter's bullet passed
through his coat-sleeve, drawing the blood, across his extended
arm, and striking Colonel Taylor, an officer who was with
them, squarely in the breast. Logan was in the middle of a
sentence at the instant, but did not wince nor make a pause
in what he was saying.
Two weeks more of marching and skirmishing found the
Army of the Tennessee before the heights of the big Kenesaw
Mountain, which Logan charged and seized, driving the rebels
in confusion from their works, taking them on the right flank,
and capturing 350 prisoners.
On the 26th of June Logan's corps relieved the Fourteenth
before the impregnable fortress where the rebels for days had
resisted every effort to dislodge them.
Says Eidpath, the historian :
Details of the many attacks against the rebels when they were
intrenched upon Kenesaw Mountain, prove the military wisdom
of General Logan in advising against them. With General
McPherson, he was at General Sherman's headquarters, when it
■was decided to make the first attack upon Kenesaw. At once
460 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
he protested, altliougli he could scarcely believe the intention to
make the assault was earnest. Upon discovering that it was
really contemplated, he emphasized his protest, coupling it with
the opinion that to send troops against that mountain would
only result in useless slaughter. Finding his opinion likely to b&-
disregarded, he went still further, and declared it to be a move-
ment which, in his judgment, would be nothing less than the
murder of brave men. In all of this he was warmly seconded
by General McPherson. They did not succeed in averting the
slaughter.
Ordered against his judgment to make the assault, Logan
led the advance with his devoted corps against the Gribraltar
at the crest, promptly at 8 o'clock in the morning. The men
bravely went forward at the command of the leader under
whose eye they never faltered and had never known defeat.
In the face of a storm of musketry they rushed over two lines
of works and pushed back the obstinate rebels up the rugged
heights to the summit. Here they were mown down like
grass before a sickle, whole lines melting away under an en-
filading fire of musketry and cannister, but they pressed on to
the very foot of a precipitous bluff, whose perpendicular walls
forbade further advance, while they were slaughtered like
sheep, without the power to strike back. Then it was
known that Logan's advice to flank the position must, after
all the sacrifice, be followed, and the attacking columns
withdrew.
Speaking of the assaults upon this position. General Sherman
says : " Both failed, costing us many valuable lives ; among
them those of Generals Harker and McCook. Colonel Kice
and others were badly wounded. Our aggregate loss was near
eight thousand, while we inflicted comparative little loss upon
the enemy, who lay behind his well-formed breastworks."
Logan felt a just pride in the valor and efficiency of his
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 463
soldiers, and it was a cruel blow to him, as well as to the
corps, to see them needlessly butchered. General Schofield is
credited with the assertion that " Logan's care of his division,
and his personal presence and example, made it equal to two
of the ordinary divisions of the army."
On the 2d of July the three corps of the Army of the Ten-
nessee were moved down to Turner's ferry, across the Chatta-
hoochee, and Johnston, seeing that his rear was threatened,
abandoned Kenesaw and once more fell back towards Atlanta.
Logan pressed close to their rear-guard at Marietta, where he
captured several hundred prisoners ; thence turning towards
the Augusta railroad, which he struck and destroyed, fifty
miles away, near Stone Mountain, he moved on to Decatur.
His corps was now the extreme left wing, and with continuous
and sharp fighting they finally went into position July 21, and
Atlanta was at last invested, as Vicksburg had been thirteen
months before, after the great victory at Champion Hills.
General Logan's corps occupied an intrenched position that
night, the Army of the Ohio being on his right, and on his
left the companion corps of the Army of the Tennessee, the
Seventeenth. The other corps, the Sixteenth, had not yet
come up, and the cavalry, whose duty it was to cover their
flanks, had been ordered off to burn a bridge near Covington,
by General Sherman's directions.
When night closed in, before an eventful morrow, McPher-
son and his corps commanders, Logan and Blair, believed that
the enemy was in strong force in their immediate front, and
disposed their troops accordingly.
On the next day, the 22d of July, was fought the most des-
perate battle in which the Army of the Tennessee was ever
engaged, and on that day Logan held in his hand the fate of
that splendid organization and the military reputation of
William Tecumseh Sherman. If the day had ended other-
464 BIOGBAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
wise, where would have been " The March to the Sea," and
that brilliant succession of events which ensued? Under
whose leadership would the Army of the West have closed
the war ? Who can say ?
The military genius of General Sherman was not brought
into requisition that day, and the glory of its achievements
belongs entirely to Logan. Indeed, Sherman was under a
misapprehension as to the position and intentions of the en-
emy, and had directed another movement that morning, as the
following order shows :
Thkee and a half miles east of Atlanta, Georgia,
July 22, 1864.
Major-Oeneral John A. Logan, commanding Fifteenth Army
Corps :
The enemy having evacuated their works in front of our lines,
the supposition of Major-General Sherman is that they have
given up Atlanta, and are retreating in the direction of East
Point.
You will immediately put your command in pursuit to the
south and east of Atlanta, without entering the town. You
will take a route to the left of that taken by the enemy, and try
to cut off a portion of them while they are pressed in the rear
and on our right by Generals Schofield and Thomas.
Major-General Sherman desires and expects a vigorous pur-
suit. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
(Signed) James B. McPherson,
Major-General.
This order was issued by McPherson, by direction of General
Sherman, in the belief that Hood, who had relieved Johnston,
had evacuated Atlanta and was in full retreat.
McPherson himself did not believe that General Sherman
was correct in his supposition, but he had no alternative but
to do as directed. He consulted with General Logan, going
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 465
to the latter's headquarters, as soon as he had dispatched the
■vyritten order to the corps commanders, for that purpose.
Having discussed the situation with Logan, he proceeded to
General Sherman's headquarters to report what he had done,
and then returned to see what was going on with the various
commands.
The Army of the Tennessee embraced then two divisions of
the Sixteenth Corps, under General Dodge ; two divisions of
the Seventeenth Corps, under General Blair, and the Fifteenth,
Logan's corps.
They did not start oflf to pursue Hood, for before the cout.
templated movement could be inaugurated, the enemy was
found to be on the offensive and advancing in great force.
Indeed, the flank of the Seventeenth Corps was suddenly
enveloped, and the men found themselves compelled to meet
their foes in both front and rear. The position of the com-
mand was seen to be perilous in the extreme, and the Second
Division of the Sixteenth Corps was moved to its support at
a double-quick, being ordered to form on the left of the sorely
pressed Seventeenth in refused line. In the haste and con-
fusion they passed too far to the rear, and in consequence,
instead of supporting Blair's men, they were separated from
them by a wide gap.
McPherson waited impatiently until he should have heard
the report of their volleys, and hearing nothing, started alone
to ride across the gap in the direction of their position, to
ascertain what was the cause of their silence. He took a blind
road leading through the timber, and had gone but a short
distance when he encountered a body of troops, whom he
saluted, supposing, no doubt, that they were some of the
command for which he was looking. It proved, as was after-
wards learned from Confederate accounts, a company of Clai-
burne's division of Hardee's corps ; and upon McPherson's
466 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
refusal to halt at command, they fired a volley, and the
unfortunate general fell dead.
The action had just fairly opened and was beginning to rage
fiercely all along the line. General Logan was hotly engaged
with a solid mass of infantry charging his corps, when word
was brought to him that McPherson was dead, and he was
directed to take command of the army.
Never was there a more trying situation for a commander.
The Seventeenth Corps was completely flanked, fighting on
both sides of its intrenchments. His own right was threatened
through the withdrawal of the Sixteenth Corps. He knew
that the loss of McPherson then was more disastrous than
the slaughter of a thousand men. He was the trusted com-
mander, and that they were being defeated every soldier
knew. It was then that they needed the guidance of a leader
who could inspire superhuman deeds.
Such was the crushing responsibility which fell upon Logan
at that awful moment. He rose to the supreme requirements
of the occasion, and with a hurried order to the general in his
immediate front, he dashed off through that cyclone of shot
and shell to save the Seventeenth Corps.
There was another crisis to be met, however. General
Morgan L. Smith's division of his own corps, the Fifteenth,
occupied a position across the railroad, and one of its brigades,
with the batteries of Woods and De Gress, was considerably
advanced. The Confederates had come on, charging in heavy-
columns upon this single brigade, crushing it and capturing
the batteries. The men had fallen back in confusion upon the
main line, which in turn threatened to break in a panic.
General Smith was vainly striving to hold his command in
check when, like an apparition, Logan, mounted upon his
well known black stallion, arrived in their midst.
They recognized the voice that so often had fallen upon
fi
it
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 469
their ears above the roar of battle. There was no escape from
the fiery glance of the eagle eye that blazed upon them. There
was not a man who, in the presence of his leader, dared to run
away.
" Halt ! " he commanded in trumpet tones. " Halt ! are
you cowards ? Would you disgrace, at last, the proud name
of the Fifteenth Corps ? Let McPherson and revenge be your
battle-cry. Will you hold this line with me ? "
" We will ! we will ! " came back in chorus, and seizing a flag
from a color-bearer, Logan rode among the men, who rallied
with cheers, and no assault could move them. Everywhere
their leader was in sight, riding hat in hand, all along the
lines, his coal-black head bared to the storm of battle.
The soldiers of the distressed and wavering Seventeenth
greeted Avith wild hurrahs the well known form of " Black
Jack," the famous commander of the Fifteenth Corps, as
though he had come with an army at his back. Wellington
did not need Blucher half so much as they needed help, but
one man was all that was added to their ranks. They knew
he was a host.
On came the charging troops of Hood. Their prowess was
of no avail. They but threw themselves against a wall of
fire, and heaped their dead at the feet of men who knew no
defeat.
Seven grand assaults were made that afternoon, but at
night their force was spent, and the Army of the Tennessee
were the victors on that field of carnage. The line of the
morning had been maintained, the guns retaken, and the ene-
my, weaker by thousands of killed, wounded and captured,
had withdrawn behind the defenses of Atlanta.
General Logan briefly reported the results of the battle as
follows :
470 BIOGKAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Headquakters Department of Army of the Tennessee,
Before Atlanta, Georgia, July 24, 1864.
GrENEEAL : I havG the honor to report the following summary
of the result of the battle of the 22d inst. : Total loss in killed,
wounded, and missing, three thousand five hundred and twenty-
one (3,521), and ten (10) pieces of artillery. We have buried
and delivered to the enemy, under a flag of truce sent in by
them, in front of the Seventeenth Corps, one thousand (1,000)
of their killed. The number of their dead in front of the Fourth
Division of the same corps, including those on the ground not
now occupied by our troops. General Blair reports, will swell
the number of their dead on his front to two thousand (2,000).
The number of dead buried in front of the Fifteenth Corps up
to this hour is three hundred and sixty (360), and the com-
manding officer reports at least as many more unburied. The
number of dead buried in front of the Sixteenth Corps was
four hundred and twenty-two (422).
We have over one thousand (1,000) of their wounded in our
hands — a larger number of wounded having been carried ofE by
them during the night, after the engagement.
We captured eighteen stands of colors, and have them now;
also captured five thousand (5,000) stand of arms.
The attack was made on our lines seven times, and was seven
times repulsed. Hood's, Hardee's, and Wheeler's commands en-
gaged us. We have sent to the rear one thousand (1,000) pris-
oners, including thirty-seven (37) commissioned officers of high
rank. We still occupy the field, and the troops are in fine spirits.
Our total loss is three thousand five hundred and twenty-one
(3,521) ; the enemy's dead thus far reported buried or delivered
to them is three thousand two hundred and twenty (3,220) ; total
prisoners sent North, one thousand and seventeen (1,017) ; total
prisoners wounded in our hands, one thousand (1,000) ; estimated
loss of the enemy, over ten thousand (10,000).
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
John A. Logan, Major-Oeneral
Major- General W. T. Sherman,
Commanding Military Division of the Mississippi.
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 471
General Sherman, in his report of the battle, said :
General Logan succeeded him [McPherson], and commanded
the Army of the Tennessee through this desperate battle with
the same success and ability that had characterized him in the
command of the corps or a division.
He placed the loss to Hood's army at 8,000 men in the ag-
gregate.
General Grant, in his official report, says :
About 1 P.M. of this day (July 22d), the brave, accomplished,
and noble-hearted McPherson was killed. General Logan suc-
ceeded him, and commanded the Army of the Tennessee
through this desperate battle, and until he was superseded by
Major-General Howard on tbe 27th, with the same success and
ability that had characterized him in the command of a corps or
division.
Naturally General Logan himself has contributed one of
the most graphic descriptions of the events of that day, ex-
cept so far as his own part in the mighty ordeal was concerned.
It was on the occasion of the unveiling of the McPherson
Statue, at Washington. After explaining General Sherman's
order to advance, upon the supposition that Atlanta had been
evacuated, and the subsequent discovery of the error by
McPherson and himself, and their notification of Sherman of
that fact, he proceeded to say :
* * * * Firing was heard to the left, and in the direction
of Decatur. The enemy had turned our flank. Hastening at
once to the left, sending his staff in every direction to bring up
all the available forces to strengthen his lines, he, with a single
orderly, rode into a bhnd path leading to General Giles A.
■Smith's division. Here he was met by a stray detachment of
Pat Claiborne's command, who hailed him and then delivered
a volley, killing him. This was a little after 12 o'clock. A
sta£E officer immediately notified General Sherman of his death.
472 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
and I was placed in command. At once General McPherson's
staff reported to me, and aided me with the ability, promptness,
and courage which made them so valuable in their services to
him.
*******
The news of his death spread with lightning speed along the
lines, sending a pang of deepest sorrow to every heart as it reached
the ear; but especially terrible was the effect on the Army of
the Tennessee. It seemed as though a burning fiery dart had
pierced every breast, tearing asunder the flood-gates of grief, but
at the same time heaving to their very depths the fountains of
revenge. The clenched hands seemed to sink into the weapons
they held, and from the eyes gleamed forth flashes terrible as
lightning. The cry '*McPherson ! McPherson !" rose above the
din of battle, and, as it rang along the line, swelled in power
until the roll of musketry and booming of cannon seemed
drowned by its echoes.
McPherson again seemed to lead his troops — and where Mc-
Pherson leads, victory is sure. Each oSicer and soldier, from the
succeeding commander to the lowest private, beheld, as it were,
the form of their bleeding chief leading them onward to battle.
" McPherson ! " and " Onward to victory ! " were their only
thoughts ; bitter, terrible revenge, their only aim. There was
no such thought that day as stopping short of victory or death.
The firm, spontaneous resolve was to win the day or perish with
their slain leader on the bloody field. Fearfully was his death
avenged that day. His army, maddened by his death, and utterly
reckless of life, rushed with savage delight into the fiercest
onslaughts, and fearlessly plunged into the very jaws of death.
As wave after wave of Hood's daring troops dashed with terrible
fury upon our lines, they were hurled back with a fearful shock,
breaking their columns into fragments, as the granite headland
breaks into foam the ocean billows. Across the narrow line of
works raged the fierce storm of battle, the hissing shot and burst-
ing shell raining death on every hand.
Over dead and dying friends and foes rushed the swaying host,
the shout of rebels confident of victory only drowned by the bat-
j''iiiiip'' (
i
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 475
tie-cry '^'McPherson!" which went up from the Army of the
Tennessee. Twelve thousand gallant men bit the dust ere the
night closed in, and the defeated and baffled enemy, after failing
in his repeated and desperate assaults upon our lines, was com-
pelled to give up the hopeless contest. Though compelled to
fight in front and rear, victory crowned our arms.
The foe, angry and sullen, moved slowly and stubbornly from
the well-contested field, where his high hopes of victory had
been so sadly disappointed. Following up the advantage gained
— and many minor contests ensued during our stay in front of
Atlanta — the Army of the Tennessee moved on to Jonesboro,
where it met the enemy on the 31st of August, and routed him
completely, effectually demoralizing his forces. It was then that
the roar of our victorious guns, mingling with deafening peals,
announced that the rebel general, conquered and dismayed, had
blown up his magazines and evacuated Atlanta, and that the last
stronghold of the West was ours.
Says John S. C. Abbott, the historian, in writing of this
engagement : " Hood was a mere reckless, desperate 'fire-eater.'
In a frenzy like that which reigns in a drunken row, he hurled
his masses, infuriated with whisky, upon the patriot lines.
He seemed reckless of slaughter, apparently resolved to carry
his point or lose the last man. General Logan was by no
means his inferior in impetuous daring, and far his superior in
all those intellectual qualities of circumspection, coolness and
judgment requisite to constitute a great general."
At midnight after that day of battle General Logan re-
paired to Sherman's headquarters, accompanied by a few of his
staflp, to report what he had done. General Sherman listened
with admiration, and the most unstinted expressions of grati-
tude and praise, to Logan's recital. " You shall command
the Army of the Tennessee for this day's work," he repeated
again and again.
Five days later the order^ " General Howard will take com-
476 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
mand of the Army of the Tennessee," came like a great disap-
pointment to those veterans who had followed McPherson and
Logan from the stronghold of the Mississippi to the last gate
of the Confederacy, before which they lay.
General Logan returned to the command of his old corps
without a murmur. Duty was his guiding star, and out of
the dark sky of ingratitude it shone the brighter. It was the
soldier who carried the musket whose heart was sore. In
Logan they beheld an idolized leader, of whom the entire army
was proud. Like Frederick the Great, he made men of iron
by his discipline, and he was a very Tancred on the field of
battle. Promoted on the field, he had saved them when on the
brink of defeat, and they felt that he had won the right to lead
them and they to follow him. Logan's humiliation was a tri-
umph for tradition. Pride of caste was unwilling to admit
that genius was as worthy of honor as a course at "West Point.
When the actors in that midnight scene shall have passed
away, and relentless Truth shall sit down to write the history
of the sequel to that battle before Atlanta, the page will blush
forever.
During the five days which General Logan commanded the
Army of the Tennessee one of the most creditable feats any
military leader ever achieved was accomplished. The retreat
of Cortez from Tenochtitlan on the terrible " Noche Triste "
was not more perilous, although the result proved so different.
It was so delicate a performance that if he had failed his his-
torians would probably not have been called upon to apologize
for it.
The rebels and the United States forces at this time were
entrenched within a very short distance of each other,
watching like tigers to see who should spring first. General
Sherman suddenly ordered that the three corps of the Army
of the Tennessee withdraw without the knowledge of the
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 477
enemy and move seven miles to tlie right. Napoleon's
passage of the Alps was an easy task compared with this
movement of an army, with its trains, artillery and camps,
seven miles in an unknown wilderness, in the darkness where
the flaming of a torch or the creaking of a wheel would dis-
close all to the foe and defeat the object of the movement. "
The wheels were muffled with hay, and so silently did the
troops steal away that it was not till morning broke, and dis-
closed the situation, that the rebels knew what had transpired.
The movement had just been safely accomplished, under the
tireless commander's personal supervision, and the new position
taken without the loss of a man, when, upon the morning of
the 27th, he was informed that he had been superseded by
Howard.
The battle of Ezra Chapel was the result of Logan's suc-
cessful flank movement. His corps had barely made a hasty
barricade with rails and earth in their front when Hood's
desperate legions fell upon them again.
A writer, who was in the battle, thus describes the action :
With hardly time for the overtaxed soldiers to recover their
exhausted energies, the Army of the Tennessee was moved again
around to the right of the Union line, and on the morning of the
28th of July, General Logan, having been relieved from the tem-
porary command of the army by the appointment of Greneral
Howard, assumed command of his old corps, and, while moving
it into position, in line of battle, on the extreme right of our army,
Just as he gained a commanding ridge upon which was situated
"Ezra Chapel," the whole corps became suddenly and furiously
engaged with the enemy. Our troops had not had a moment
to construct even the rudest defense, but they held their posi-
tion and, after about one hour of terrific fighting, the enemy
retired. He, however, soon reformed, and again made a des-
perate assault, which was subsequently repeated four successive
times, with like results. The temporary lulls in the fighting did
478 BlOGftAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
not at any time exceed five minutes. It was an open field fight,
in which the enemy, consisting of Hardee's and Lee's corps,
greatly exceeded us in numerical strength, but we exceeded him
in spirit and determination. The engagement lasted from 11.30
A.M. until darkness compelled a cessation. Logan captured five
battle-flags, about 2,000 muskets, and 106 prisoners, not includ-
ing 73 wounded left on the field. Over 600 of the enemy's dead
were buried in our front ; a large number were probably carried
off during the night, as the enemy did not leave the field until
near daylight. Their loss was not less than 5,000. Logan's
only reached 562.
Logan's corps was left alone that day to withstand the
repeated assaults of the rebels, and manfully they received
the shock, hurling back the advancing hosts six times with
great slaughter.
General Sherman in his report says that Logan commanded
in person, and repulsed the rebel army completely. In another
place he remarks of this engagement : " G-eneral Logan, on
this occasion, was conspicuous as on the 22d, his corps being
chiefly engaged ; but General Howard had drawn from the
other corps, the Sixteenth and Seventeenth, certain reserves,
which were near at hand, but not used."
General Logan's report runs as follows :
Headquaeteks Fifteenth Akmy Corps, before
Atlanta, Ga., July 29, 1864.
Colonel: I have the honor to report that in pursuance of
orders I moved my command in position on the right of the Sev-
enteenth Army Corps, which was the extreme right of the army in
the field, on the night and morning of the 27th and 28th instant,
and during my advance to a more desirable position we were met
by the rebel infantry from Hood's and Lee's corps, who made a
desperate and determined attack at half -past eleven o'clock in the
morning of the 28th.
THE GEOEGIA CAMPAIGN. 481
My lines were protected only by logs and rails hastily thrown
in front of them. The first onset was received and checked, and
the battle commenced, lasting until about three o'clock in the
afternoon. During that time six successive charges were made,
which were six times gallantly repulsed, each time with fearful
loss to the enemy. Later in the evening, my lines were several
times assaulted vigorously, but terminated with like result. The
most of the fighting occurred on Generals Harrow and Smith's
fronts, which formed the centre and right of the line. The
troops could not have displayed more courage, nor greater deter-
mination not to yield. Had they shown less they would have
been driven from their position. Brigadier-Generals Wood,
Harrow and Smith's division commands are entitled to great
credit for gallant conduct and skill in repelling the assaults. My
thanks are due to Major-Generals Blair and Dodge for sending
me re-enforcements at a time when they were much needed.
My losses are fifty killed, 439 wounded, and 83 missing ; aggre-
gate, 572.
The division of General Harrow captured five battle-flags.
There were about fifteen hundred or two thousand muskets cap-
tured ; 106 prisoners were captured, exclusive of 73 wounded,
who have been removed to hospitals and are being taken care of
by our surgeons ; 565 rebels up to this time have been buried,
and about 200 supposed to be yet unburied. Large numbers
were undoubtedly carried away during the night, as the enemy
did not withdraw until nearly daylight. The enemy's loss could
not have been, in my judgment, less than six or seven thousand.
I am, very respectfully.
Your obedient servant,
John A. LoGA2<r,
Major-General, commanding Fifteenth Army Corps.
LlEUT.-COLONEL W. T. ClAEK,
Assistant Adjutant- General.
General Howard endorsed the report as follows :
treilii
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 483
force after two terrible battles, and witb that view he massed his
troops, as already indicated; and his dispositions evince that he
possesses no mean order of military talent. Had his designs
succeeded, he would have so interrupted Sherman's communica-
tions that that commander would have been compelled to give
battle at a disadvantage, and on Hood's own terms.
The skirmishing commenced early in the morning, but several
hours were consumed in the preliminaries. Loring's corps was
on the left, and it was to it that the chief flanking movements
were assigned ; while nearly all the remainder of the rebel army
were massed directly in front of Logan. A few brigades ex-
tended farther to the right, and confronting Dodge. The reason
of Hood's extreme caution was his entire ignorance of the
strength of the opposing forces. Was it only a brigade left to
protect communications? He doubtless believed so. But when
once his army was on the move he was not long in discovering
his mistake. The assailants, after driving in our pickets, moved
up with a steady step, opening out when within four hundred
yards of our fortification. General Hood superintended the
movement, and was seen riding up and down the lines encourag-
ing his men, and pointing out the easy victory he anticipated,
while his subordinates were equally busy in urging the troops
forward. Along our lines they observed a general and his stafE
moving slowly and halting, as if to confer with every regimental
commander; but not a head was seen above the works. For
aught the assailants positively knew, they were tenantless, save
by the few pickets and skirmishers they had driven in and seen
mount over the intrenchments. They, however, suspected, from
the frequent pauses of the general in question, that there was a
garrison behind the embankments before them, and they were
right.
The commander was General Logan. There was a storm of
bullets flying around him; he wavered not, but continued his
movements down the lines. "Keep your men here," was the
order to each regimental commander, " till the rebels are within
easy range, then let no shot be thrown away." Meeting no force
the assailants took courage, and when within two hundred yards
484 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
raised a tremendous yell, and started on the double-quick. But
at that instant the signal was given, and every battery double-
shotted with canister was let loose, the apparently deserted forti-
fications were lined with heads, and at every foot a shining
musket was aimed at the assailants. I have frequently heard of
the murderous fire poured forth from the heights of Bunker Hill,
and from behind the cotton bales of New Orleans, but how feeble
those when compared with the destroying volley which swept in a
single instant hundreds of men into eternity, and laid thousands
maimed, many of them for life, on the plains before Atlanta.
The human tide which flowed on with apparently irresistible
force, now ebbed and rolled back in terror and dismay. They
waited for no second fire ; another, and the army would have
been nearly destroyed ; they therefore sought shelter as speedily
as possible beyond the range of our guns.
From this time till late in August Logan continued to push
forward the lines of the Fifteenth Corps, fighting day and night
with the rebels, who opposed their advance at every hill and
river. On the 3d and 11th of the month he captured the
enemy's fortified outposts, with several hundred prisoners,
with small loss to his own command. On the 26th of August,
Sherman having determined upon an attempt to flank the city
instead of besieging it, Logan was ordered to move again, by
the right flank. He struck and tore up the West Point Kail-
road, in pursuance of Sherman's new tactics against the rebel
communications. Marching on to Jonesboro, he drove the
Confederates for ten miles, and arrived in front of the place
at dark, August 30. Nearly all night the troops were cross-
ing the Flint Kiver, and early in the morning, without the
knowledge of either Sherman or Howard, the Fifteenth Corps
was strongly intrenched and ready to receive the attack of
Lee's and Hardee's corps, who advanced under Anderson with
impetuous bravery. It was well that no time had been lost
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 487
by Logan's corps in getting ready, for the assault was made
with great force and determination at 3 o'clock in the after-
noon, the line advancing to within a hundred feet of the
trenches. For over an hour the Confederates persisted in their
desperate charge, but they were finally compelled to abandon
the attempt, after losing over 2,500 men. The United States
troops captured 241 prisoners and two rebel battle flags,
while, owing to skillfully arranged defenses, which Logan in
person had superintended, their own loss was only 154. Sher-
man in his report admits that he simply heard the sound of
cannon towards Jonesboro, and was told about 4 o'clock that
Howard had repulsed a rebel attack.
This battle decided the fate of Atlanta and but for Sher-
man's and Howard's bad management in not having the other
commands up to support the Fifteenth Corps, Hood's entire
army would have been bagged, as Grant had taken Pember-
ton. As it was, however, the rebel army was allowed to
escape, and tbe Army of the Cumberland had to be sent back
across all the bloody ground fought over the spring before,
to keep Hood from invading Kentucky and Ohio. In his
" Memoirs " Sherman says that the rebel army, go where it
might, and not Atlanta, Augusta or Savannah, was the ob-
jective point ; but viewed in the light of the events at the time,
it looks very much as though this were really an after-thought.
Logan's corps pursued the retreating rebels to Lovejoy's
station, where he had them in flank and proposed to attack
and capture them yet, but Sherman, sated with the triumph
of a deserted city, refused to have Hood pursued farther, and
encamped in September for a period of reflection.
The Army of the Tennessee went into camp at East Point,
Ga. Soon afterwards General Logan issued a congratulatory
address to his troops, in the following terms :
488 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Headquarters Fifteenth Army Corps,
East Point, Ga., Sept. 11, 1864
Officers and Soldiers of tlie Fifteenth Army Corps:
You have borne your part in the accomplishment of the object
of this campaign — a part well and faithfully done.
On the 1st day of May, 1864, from Huntsville, Ala., and its
vicinity, you commenced the march. The marches and labors
performed by you during this campaign will hardly find a parallel
in the history of war. The proud name heretofore acquired by
the Fifteenth Corps for soldierly bearing and daring deeds remains
untarnished — its luster undimmed. During the campaign you
constituted the main portion of the flanking column of the
whole army. Your first move against the enemy was around the
right of the army at Eesaca, where, by your gallantry, the enemy
were driven from the hills and his works on the mam road from
Vilanow to Eesaca. On the retreat of the enemy you moved on
the right flank of the army by a circuitous route to Adairsville ;
in the same manner from there to Kingston and Dallas, where,
on the 28th day of May, you met the veteran corps of Hardee,
and in a severe and bloody contest you hurled him back, killing
and wounding over two thousand, besides capturing a large num-
ber of prisoners. You then moved around to the left of the
army, by way of Acworth, to Kenesaw Mountain, where again
you met the enemy, driving him from three lines of works, capt-
uring over three hundred prisoners. During your stay in front
of Kenesaw Mountain, on the 27th of June, you made one of the
most daring, bold, and heroic charges of the war, against the al-
most impregnable position of the enemy on Little Kenesaw. You
were then moved, by way of Marietta, to Nickajack Creek, on
the right of the army ; thence back to the extreme left by way
of Marietta and Eoswell, to the Augusta Eailroad, near Stone
Mountain, a distance of fifty miles, and after effectually destroy-
ing the railroad at this point, you moved by way of Decatur to
the immediate front of the rebel stronghold, Atlanta. Here, on
the 23d day of July, you again performed your duty nobly, "as
patriots and soldiers," in one of the most severe and sanguinary
conflicts of the campaign. With hardly time to recover your al-
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 489
most exhausted energies, you were moved again around to the
right of the army, only to encounter the same troops against
whom you had so recently contended, and the battle of the 28th
of July, at Ezra Chapel, will long be remembered by the oflScers
and soldiers of this command. On that day it was the Fifteenth
Corps that, almost unaided and alone, for four hours contested
the field against the corps of Hardee and Lee. You drove them
discomfited from the field, causing them to leave their dead and
many of their wounded in your hands. The many noble and
gallant deeds performed by you on that day will be remembered
among the proudest acts of our nation's history. After pressing
the enemy closely for several days, you again moved to the right
of the army, to the West Point Eailroad, near Fairburn. After
completely destroying the road for some distance, you marched
to Jonesboro, driving the enemy before you from Pond Creek, a
distance of ten miles. At this point you again met the enemy,
composed of Lee's and Hardee's corps, on the 31st of August,
and punished them severely, driving them in confusion from the
field, with their dead and many wounded and prisoners left in
your hands. Here again by your skill and true courage you
kept sacred the reputation you have so long maintained, viz.:
" The Fifteenth corps never meets the enemy but to strike and
defeat him." On the 1st of September the Fourteenth Corps
attacked Hardee ; you at once opened fire on him, and by your
co-operation his defeat became a rout. Hood, hearing the news,
blew up his ammunition trains, retreated, and Atlanta was ours.
You have marched during the campaign, in your windings, the
distance of four hundred miles, have put hors de comlat more of
the enemy than your corps numbers, have captured twelve stands
of colors, 2,450 prisoners, and 210 deserters.
The course of your march is marked by the graves of patriotic
heroes who have fallen by your side ; but at the same time it is
more plainly marked by the blood of traitors who have defied the
Constitution and laws, insulted and trampled under foot the glo-
rious flag of our country.
We deeply sympathize with the friends of those of our^ com-
rades in arms who have fallen ; our sorrows are only appeased by
490 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
the knowledge that they fell as brave men, battling for the
preservation and perpetuation of one of the best governments
of earth. "Peace be to their ashes."
You now rest for a short time from your labors. During the
respite prepare for future action. Let your country see at all
times by your conduct that you love the cause you have
espoused ; that you have no sympathy with any who would by
word or deed assist vile traitors in dismembering our mighty
Eepublic or trailing in the dust the emblem of our national
greatness and glory. You are the defenders of a government
that has blessed you heretofore with peace, happiness, and pros-
perity. Its perpetuity depends upon your heroism, faithfulness,
and devotion.
When the time shall come to go forward again, let us go
with the determination to save our nation from threatened
wreck and hopeless ruin, not forgetting the appeal from widows
and orphans that is borne to us upon every breeze to avenge the
loss of their loved ones who have fallen in defense of their
country. Be patient, obedient, and earnest ; and the day is not
far distant when you can return to your homes with the proud
consolation that you have assisted in causing the old banner to
again wave from every mountain's top and over every town and
hamlet of our once happy land, and hear the shouts of triumph
ascend from a grateful people, proclaiming that once more we
have one flag and one country.
John A. Logan,
Major-General Commanding.
A writer in The National Tribune of Washington, D. C,
in a recent issue tells an affecting story of an incident of
Logan's march around Atlanta which is well worth a more
lasting place in literature than the columns of the current
press. The story is as follows :
It was the summer of 1864, and the army under Sherman
had fallen back from its position before Atlanta and swept
around to Hood's rear, General Logan leading the advance. I
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 493
remember that the country was densely wooded, and that mag-
nificent forests of pine, oak, and chestnut towered on either side
of the road over which we marched. We were not molested
until we neared Flint River. There the enemy had planted a
masked battery, and, as we approached, it enfiladed our line.
You could scarce encounter more disagreeable travelers on a
lonely road than shot and shell, and the boys were not long in
taking to the shelter of the timber. But General Logan at once
ordered up a field battery of brass " Napoleons," and presently
accepted this challenge to an artillery duel. There was nothing
to direct the fire of our gunners save the white puffs of smoke
that could be seen rising above the foliage, and the course of the
enemy's shots, but they nevertheless soon silenced the rebel
cannon, and once more cleared the way for the column.
We then rode forward again, the writer in company with Dr.
Wood worth, the medical inspector of General Logan's staff, and
until his death, some four years ago, the head of the Marine
Hospital Service. Just as we turned a bend in the road we
emerged suddenly into a small clearing. A rude log cabin, sur-
rounded by evergreen shrubbery, stood in the clearing, and
hanging from one of the bushes we noticed a yellow cloth.
As medical oflBcers, it naturally occurred to us at once that
this was an improvised hospital of some sort, and we rode up to
inquire. At the door of the cabin, as we approached, an old
woman, evidently of the familiar "cracker" type, presented her-
self, but, on seeing that we were " Yankees," beat a hasty re-
treat. But we were not disposed to be so easily baffled, and
calling her out again, began to ply her with questions.
She told us "there Ava'n't no wounded men thar," and when
asked why she had put out a yellow flag there, she replied :
"Waal, ye see, my gal is sick, and I reckoned ef I put out that
yer hosp't'l rag you'ns wouldn't be pesterin' round so
much."
" What's the matter with your child ? " said I ; "we are medi-
cal oflflcers, and perhaps we can do something for her."
" Waal, now," she quickly responded, " ef you'ns is real doc-
tors, just look in and see what you'ns all done with your shellin'.
494 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Time my gal was sickest, two of yourn shells come clar through
my cabin, and, I tell you, it was right skeery for a spell."
We accepted the old woman's invitation and walked in. It
was as she said. The cabin, built of rough pine logs, afforded
but one room, about twelve feet square. A small log meat-
house (empty) was the only outbuilding, — the cow-stable hav-
ing been knocked to pieces by our shells, — except a small bark-
thatched " lean-to " at the rear, in which we found a loom of the
most primitive sort and constructed in the roughest fashion,
containing a partially completed web of coarse-cotton "home-
spun." Aside from this loom, the only household articles visi-
ble were an old skillet, a rather dilapidated bed, two or three
chairs without backs, and a queer collection of gourds. The
shells had indeed played havoc with the interior. The roof had
been sadly shattered, and a stray shot had pierced the walls.
It had cut one of the logs entirely in two, and forced one
jagged end out into the room so far that it hung threateningly
over the bed, upon which, to our astonishment, we saw lying a
young girl, by whose side was a new-born babe with the prints
of the Creator's fingers fresh upon it. It was a strange yet
touching spectacle. Here, in this lonely cabin, stripped by law-
less stragglers of both armies of food and clothing, and shattered
by the flying shells of our artillery, in the storm and fury of the
battle had been born this sweet innocent. The mother, we
learned, was the wife of a Confederate soldier whose blood had
stained the " sacred soil " of Virginia but a few months after his
marriage and conscription into the service, and the child was
fatherless. The babe was still clad only in its own innocence,
but the writer with his handy jack-knife cut from the unfinished
web in the old loom a piece of coarse homespun, in which it
was soon deftly swaddled. Fortunately we had our hospital
knapsacks with us, and our orderlies carried a little brandy,
with a few medicines and a can of beef-extract, and we at once
did all that our limited stores permitted to relieve the wants of
the young mother and child.
But by this time quite a number of officers and men, attracted
by the sight of the yellow flag and our horses waiting at the
THE GEOEGIA CAMPAIGN. 495
door, had gatheied about the cabin, and, while we were inside,
they amused themselves by listening to the old lady's account
of this stirring incident. One of the officers had given her
some "store terbacker," with which she had filled a cob-pipe,
and the fact that she was spitting through her teeth with such
accuracy as to hit a fly at ten paces nine times out of ten,
showed that she was enjoying herself after the true " cracker "
style. Presently some one suggested that the baby ought to
be christened with full military honors, and it being duly ex-
plained to her that to '* christen " was all the same as to
"baptize," she replied with alacrity, *' Oh, yes! baptized, I
reckon, if you'ns has got any preacher along."
This was all the boys wanted, and an orderly was at once sent
back to the general commanding, with the compliments of the
surgeon and a request that a chaplain belonging to one of the
regiments in the advance brigade might be allowed to return
with the messenger to the cabin.
The general asked the orderly for what purpose a chaplain
was wanted, and the orderly replied that the doctors (mentioning
our names) were going to have a baptism.
Upon this, General Logan (for he it was) significantly re-
marked that the names mentioned were in themselves sufficient
to satisfy him that some deviltry was on hand, but that, never-
theless, the chaplain might go. Then, inyiting the colonel, who
happened to be riding with him at the time, he set out himself
for the scene, spurring "Old John" to a gallop, and soon had
joined the party at the cabin.
" General," said the doctor, as the former dismounted, " you
are just the man we're after."
" For what ?"
" For a godfather," replied the doctor.
"Godfather to what?" demanded the General.
The matter was explained to him, and as the doctor led the
way into the house, the boys who had gathered around the Gen-
eral in the expectation that the event would furnish an occasion
for a display of his characteristic humor, noticed there was some-
thing in " Blackjack's " face that they were not wont to see there,
496 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
and that in his eyes there was a certain humid tenderness far
different from their usual flashing brightness. He stood for a
moment silent, gazing at the unhappy mother and fatherless
child, and their pitiful surroundings, and then turning to those
about him said tersely :
" That looks rough."
Then glancing around at the ruins wrought by our shells,
and addressing the men in the cabin, he called out, " I say boys,
can't you straighten this up a little ? Fix up that roof. There
are plenty of ' stakes ' around that old stable — and push back
that log into place, and help the old lady to clear out the litter,
and — I don't think it would hurt you any to leave a part of your
rations ! "
Prompt to heed the suggestion, the boys leaned their muskets
against the logs, and, while some of them cut brush, others swept
up the splinters and pine knots that the shot and shell had
strewn over the floor, and not one of them forgot to go to the
corner of the cabin and empty his haversack ! It made a pile of
commissary stores, consisting of meat, coffee, sugar, hard-tack,
and chickens (probably foraged from her next-door neighbor)
surpassing any that this poor '^ cracker" woman had probably
ever seen or possessed at one time.
This done, the next thing in order was the christening, and
the chaplain now came forward to perform his sacred office.
"What are you going to give her for a name? I want suthin
right peart, now," said grandmother.
She was told that the name should be satisfactory, and forth-
with she brought out the baptismal bowl — which on this occa-
sion consisted of a gourd — full of water fresh from the spring.
General Logan now took the baby, wrapped in its swaddling-
clothes of coarse homespun, and held it while the chaplain went
through with the ceremony. The latter was brief and character-
ized with due solemnity, the spectators behaving with becoming
reverence, and thus the battle-born babe was christened " Shell-
Anna." I like to think that, as the chaplain's prayers were
winging their way to heaven, the gory goddess who nurses a gor-
gon at her breast stayed her red hand awhile ! .
THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 499
The party now turned to leave the cabin and resume the
march, when General Logan, taking a gold coin from his pocket,
— a coin that he had carried as a pocket-piece for many a day, —
presented it to the old lady as a " christening gift " for his god-
child, and the officers and men, as they had recently drawn
their pay, added one by one, a "greenback," until the sum was
swelled to an amount greater than this brave-hearted "cracker"
had ever handled. Before parting the General cautioned her to
put the money in a safe place, lest some " bummer should
steal it in spite of everything," and then, ordering a guard to be
kept over her cabin until the last straggler had passed by, he
rode away. The old lady's good-by was, ''Waal! them thar
Yanks is the beatcnist critters 1 ever seen ! "
Ten days or so after this occurrence, the cabin being by that
time within the enemy's lines, the General, accompanied by the
writer and ten of his escort, rode back eight miles to see how our
protegee was getting on, and found both mother and child, in the
language of grandma, " quite peart." Whether General Logan's
god-daughter is still alive or not I do not know, but five years
after that visit word reached me that she then was. Certainly
no one who witnessed that scene will ever forget the big-hearted
soldier as he stood sponsor — grim, yet gentle — for that poor
little battle-born babe of Flint Eiver. It all came back to me,
the other night, as I walked past the front steps of the General's
Washington house and saw a squad of little urchins climbing
about his knee.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE CAROLINAS.
Logan called North by Lincoln for the political campaign. — Joins Grant at
City Point. — Ordered to supersede Thomas in command of the Army of
the Cumberland. — Asks Grant to excuse him from this duty, and to be
sent back to his own corps. — The terrible march through the Carolinas.
— Crosses the Salkabatchie and North Edisto. — The Congaree, Saluda,
and Broad crossed, with Hampton's troopers in front. — Columbia occu-
pied.— Fighting fire. — The bottomless Lynch Creek passed. — On to Fay-
etteville.— Building corduroy roads. — Over the South River and on to
Goldsboro. — Marching to the sound of the guns. — Joins the left wing at
Bentonville Cross Roads. — At Goldsboro. — At Raleigh.— Logan saves the
city.— Organization of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. —
Again in command of the army. — The grand review. — Resigns his com-
mission.— Farewell address to his soldiers.
WHEN General Sherman decided to rest upon his laurels
for awhile and not pursue active operations further at
that time, General Logan yielded to the earnest solicitations
of Mr. Lincoln to come North and take the stump before the
fall elections. He was received by the people of the North with
unbounded enthusiasm wherever he appeared, and his speeches
furnished the rallying cry for the Union party. He spoke
chiefly in Illinois and Indiana. He advocated using any and
all means to put down the rebellion, and to support the ad-
ministration of Abraham Lincoln.
The war President met with opposition from two classes of
people. There were many who, in 1864, tired of the war,
thought that Mr. Lincoln had been too lenient with secession
at the outset ; that he had been inclined to temporize with
the rebel leaders ; and that, instead of calling for 75,000 troops,
THE CAMPAIGN THKOUGH THE CAROLINAS. 501
he should have summoned at once a half million volunteers,
and proceeded to crush the insurrection in the bud. There
was another class of men who were active rebel sympathizers,
and opposed Mr. Lincoln's re-election because he was the can-
didate of the war party. They believed the war a failure be-
cause they wished it to be so, and were willing to make peace
upon any terms that would suit the oligarchy of the South.
In fact, there was such a considerable opposition to Mr. Lin-
coln in the North during this campaign, that had not the ma-
jority of the voters of the Democratic party of the country
been in the rank and file of the rebel army at that time, he
would not have carried the National election.
At the conclusion of his brilliant campaign on the stump
that fall, General Logan found his corps cut off from commu-
nication with the North, in common with the rest of Sher-
man's army, which had started on the march to Savannah.
He, therefore, reported for duty at Washington, and thence
went to City Point, Virginia, where General Grant had his
headquarters.
At this time occurred a passage in General Logan's career
which should be written in letters of gold, when the memory
of generations, with their deeds, shall have passed into ob-
livion. It was an act of magnanimity which, in a day of
jealousies and schemes among rival officers for preferment,
stands out as the shining exception to the course of our am-
bitious leaders.
Sherman's failure to bag Hood's army at Atlanta, as has
been seen, necessitated the movement of the Army of the
Cumberland, -under General Thomas, and the battles of
Franklin and Nashville. It will be remembered that great
dissatisfaction was felt at Washington with Thomas because
he did not whip his Confederate adversary, and repulse the
threatened demonstration towards the north. The country
502 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
was clamoring for something to "be done "by the Army of the
Cumberland, and General Grant shared the universal opinion
that Thomas was at fault in pursuing a Fabian policy. Gen-
eral Logan, who was well known in the Army of the Cumber-
land, from the events of the Atlanta campaign, was ordered
by Grant to go at once and assume command of it and
carry on the operations against Hood. Logan knew Thomas
better than Grant, because they had fought side by side
through all the bloody battles from Chattanooga to Atlanta,
and he was convinced that the brave commander of the
Army of the Cumberland had good reason for not fighting.
With the order in his pocket making him commander of
the Army of the Cumberland, he began his journey leisurely
towards the West.
Witness the conduct of this impetuous officer, who had
never known weariness or want of sleep when the enemy was
in his front, going slowly towards his new post, as if in no
hurry to reap the great honor which lay within his grasp. He
was not, like Howard, willing to accept a promotion won by
another man. Arriving at Louisville, the battle of Nashville
had begun, giving him the justification for which he had
hoped, for declining to supersede General Thomas. He im-
mediately telegraphed to General Grant suggesting that
Thomas was doing all that was necessary, and should not be
removed in the face of an enemy, but, on the contrary, de-
served the highest honor for his generalship. He asked for
himself that he be allowed to return to his own command, the
Fifteenth Corps.
But for this magnanimous action he might have lived in
history as the hero of the battle of Nashville, adding another
star to the galaxy of his victories, while the position of Thomas
in the annals of the war would have remained equivocal. For
no act of his life does General Logan deserve more honor than
v4!^r"vi
THE CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE CAROLINAS. 505
for this self-denial, in the face of a temptation which would
have proved too much for many a man whom the world has
called great.
In the meantime his corps had reached Savannah, where he
repaired, and resumed his place as its commander.
In January, 1865, the perilous winter campaign through the
Carolinas was begun. For difficulties encountered and over-
come, for trials and deprivations, as the Army of the Tennessee
struggled on through the barren region from Savannah to Co-
lumbia, Fayetteville, Goldsboro and Raleigh, this march has
never been surpassed in the history of war. Through all these
movements Logan's corps led the advance. In its achieve-
ments this campaign was more important than the march
" from Atlanta to the sea," while its physical difficulties were
far greater. Hundreds of soldiers actually died from fatigue
and starvation. Swollen streams were crossed where bridges
were wanting. A wilderness of swamps and deep morasses was
threaded in the face of an ever- watchful enemy, and all the
while gaunt famine was wearing away the strength and sap-
ping the courage of those weary veterans.
The Little Salkahatchie Eiver was reached by the Fifteenth
Corps on the 5th of February, and the enemy was found in-
trenched upon its opposite bank. They did not stop, how-
ever, but charging through its muddy current, they drove out
the rebels and advanced along the railroad, which they tore
up and burned. On the 12th, the North Edisto was crossed,
the enemy, constantly in front, contesting the advance of the
United States troops. Here Logan captured 80 prisoners and
200 stand of arms.
Proceeding toward Columbia, the passage of the Congaree
Creek was forced on the 15th by fighting Wade Hampton's
dismounted cavalry, and at the same time he made a demon-
stration on the Great Congaree. The enemy's position was
506 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
turned, and Hampton was driven back, not having time to
succeed in burning the bridge, which he left in flames, how-
ever, to be extinguished by Logan's soldiers, who saved the
structure and went into camp for the night. But they had
little sleep, because the air was filled with rebel shells.
The Saluda and Broad rivers were passed on the 17th, and
General Stone's brigade occupied the city of Columbia.
Before leaving the city Wade Hampton's men had set fire
to a lot of cotton, from which the flames spread, and that
night the destruction of the city of Columbia was threatened.
Two brigades of Logan's corps, then in the city, turned out to
fight the flames, but being insufficient to avert a conflagra-
tion, he sent up more troops, and by superhuman exertions
they saved a portion of it from destruction.
Two days were spent by Logan's command in the destruc-
tion of public stores which the Confederates had left in
Columbia, and in organizing the trains for people who desired
to go north.
In the Lynch Creek bottom a difficulty was met which
would have balked the genius of any commander or of any
army which had not learned, like Logan and his men, to set
difficulties at naught and depend upon their own resources in
every emergency. The bottom was a sheet of mud and water,
through which a bridgeless torrent flowed, where horses and
mules were useless, and the soldiers, by means of ropes, were
obliged to drag the wagons and artillery with their own hands.
General Logan was with his troops, guiding and directing
their efforts in person, in the midst of a pitiless storm of rain
and wind, which chilled to the bone and paralyzed the energies
of men whose only sustenance was raw corn, eaten from the
cob. For days there was no place to make a fire nor fuel that
would burn to boil even a cup of coffee ; but those veterans,
imbued with the unconquerable spirit which had led them from
THE CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE CAROLINAS, 507
Donelson to Vicksburg and Atlanta, overcame every difficulty
and forced their way through every impediment.
March 5th and 6th the Great Pedee was crossed, and passing
the Lumber River, the advance upon Fayetteville was made.
It rained continuously, and the labors of the advance were
increased by the necessity for building corduroy roads for the
passage of the artillery and trains. The whole corps worked all
day and night of the 9th in making roads and crossing to solid
ground, which was reached on the 10th. They arrived at the
bank of Cape Fear River on the 15th, and on the 17th South
River, a deep and apparently impassable stream, lay across
their course. Again the soldiers were obliged to go to work
and make a road across the bottoms before trains could proceed.
This difficulty surmounted, the Neuse, near Goldsboro, pre-
sented another obstacle, which was increased by the cloud of
hostile cavalry which hung upon their flanks and front.
Marching to the sound of the guns where the left wing was
fighting Johnston, Logan pushed along the Bentonville road,
driving the enemy at every step. At Mill Creek they were
found intrenched in one position after another, from which
they were successively driven. Having gained the cross-roads
to Bentonville and Smithfield, Logan went into position and
intrenched in front of the enemy's main line. He had now
formed a junction with the other wing of the army, and on
the 2l8t his corps again advanced upon the enemy, driving
him along his entire front. Stopping to intrench, the bat-
teries played that day and night incessantly upon the rebel
works. The next morning Johnston was found to have with-
drawn from his position and retreated across the creek, burn-
ing the bridge behind him. Going on again, in the face of
every barrier which the hostile elements and the genius of John-
ston could throw across their path, they reached Goldsboro on
the 23d. Here they went into camp,
508 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
While in this position — Petersburg having fallen, followed
by the evacuation of Richmond — the Army of the Tennessee
again broke camp, and Logan's corps advanced on the right
towards Smithfield and Raleigh. The army waited at Raleigh
while Sherman was conducting those negotiations with John-
ston which ended with little credit to the former, and were
disapproved by his superiors. It is not the province of this
work, however, to enter into a discussion of this matter.
In the meantime General Logan conceived the idea of form-
ing a Society of the Army of the Tennessee, for the purpose
of keeping alive and perpetuating the relationship which had
been born of their superhuman struggles, their privations
together, and their brilliant achievements. A meeting for
this purpose was held in the Capitol at Raleigh, where Logan
was urged to accept the presidency of the society. He
declined the distinction, however, and suggested the propriety '
of the selection of General John A. Rawlins, General Grant's
chief-of-staff, as the latter was in every way worthy, and it
would be a compliment to the commander-in-chief.
While at Raleigh the news of the assassination of President
Lincoln reached the army. The blow was greater than they
could bear with resignation, and the instincts of retaliation
were aroused. That the cities of the South were not laid
waste will ever stand as a lasting monument to the modera-
tion of civilization. Threats of violence were loud and deep,
and in spite of the precautions taken by the oflficers, a body of
stragglers escaped from camp in the night and rushed madly
towards the city, torch in hand. Word was brought to the
panic-stricken inhabitants, and conscious that only a miracle
could save them, they turned to flee. A spirit mighty enough
was there, however, to avert the impending calamity. Logan,
mounting his war horse, whose black coat had so often appeared
to those soldiers out of the cloud of battle, dashed down the
MAKING ROADS THROUGH NORTH CAROLINA.
THE CAMPAIGN THKOUGH THE CAROLINAS. 511
road to meet tlie enraged mob. Drawing his naked sword, he
commanded them to halt on pain of death to the first man who
should advance another step. Those veterans recognized the
voice they had never disobeyed, and allowed themselves to be
i.ed back in tears to camp. The City of Ealeigh was saved.
When the capitulation of Johnston had been arranged in a
manner satisfactory to General Grant, Logan marched with
his corps, by the way of Fredericksburg and Alexandria to
Washington. General Howard having been placed in charge
of the Freedmen's Bureau on the 12th of May, General Logan
was again given command of that splendid organization of
veterans, the Army of the Tennessee. At its head, on the 24th
of May, he led the grand review before the President of the
United States, at Washington, and rode down Pennsylvania
Avenue, the central figure of the greatest military pageant
ever seen on the Western Continent.
Being ordered to Louisville, he mustered out his troops, and
resigning his commission, to enter the ranks of his fellows as a
private citizen again, it was his privilege, at last, to issue the
farewell address to the Army of the Tennessee. This memor-
able document, which deserves to live in the imperishable
archives of the United States, ran as follows :
Headquarters Armt of the Tennessee,
LorisviLLE, Ky., July 13, 1865,
Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee :
The profound gratification I feel in being authorized to release
you from the onerous obligations of the camp, and return you,
laden with laurels, to homes where warm hearts wait to welcome
you, is somewhat embittered by the painful reflection that I am
sundering the ties that trials have made true, time made tender,
suffering made sacred, perils made proud, heroism made honor-
able, and fame made forever fearless of the future. It is no
common occasion that demands the disbandment of a military
512 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
organization, before the resistless power of which, mountains
bristling with bayonets have bowed, cities have surrendered, and
millions of brave men been conquered. Although I have been
but a short period your commander, we are not strangers ; affec-
tions have sprung up between us during the long years of doubt,
gloom, and carnage which we have passed through together,
nurtured by common perils, sufferings, and sacrifices, and riveted
by the memories of gallant comrades whose bones repose beneath
the sod of an hundred battle-fields, which neither time nor dis-
tance will weaken or efface. The many marches you have made,
the dangers you have despised, the haughtiness you have huijibled,
the duties you have discharged, the glory you have gained, the
destiny you have discovered for the country, in whose cause you
have conquered, all recur at this moment, in all the vividness
that marked the scenes through which we have just passed.
From the pens of the ablest historians of the land daily are drift-
ing out upon the current of time, page upon page, volume upon
volume, of your heroic deeds, which, floating down to future
generations, will inspire the student of history with admiration,
the patriot American with veneration for his ancestors, and the
lover of Kepublican liberty with gratitude to those who in a
fresh baptism of blood reconsecrated the powers and energies of
the Eepublic to the cause of constitutional freedom. Long may
it be the happy fortune of each and every one of you to live in
the full fruition of the boundless blessings you have secured to
the human race ! Only he whose heart has been thrilled with
admiration for your impetuous and unyielding valor in the
thickest of the fight can appreciate with what pride I recount the
brilliant achievements which immortalize you, and enrich the
pages of our national history. Passing by the earlier but not less
signal triumphs of the war, in which most of you participated
and inscribed upon your banners such victories as Donelson and
Shiloh, I recur to campaigns, sieges, and victories that challenge
the admiration of the world, and ehcit the unwilhng applause of
all Europe. Turning your backs upon the blood-bathed heights
of Vicksburg, you launched into a region swarming with enemies,
fighting your way and marching, without adequate supplies, to
THE CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE CAROLINAS, 513
answer the cry for succor that came to you from the noble but
beleaguered army of Chattanooga. Your steel next flashed
among the mountains of Tennessee, and your weary limbs found
rest before the embattled heights of Missionary Ridge, and there
with dauntless courage you breasted again the enemy's destruc-
tive fire, and shared with your comrades of the Army of the
Cumberland the glories of a victory than which no soldier can
boast a prouder.
In that unexampled campaign of vigilant and vigorous war-
fare from Chattanooga to Atlanta you freshened your laurels at
Resaca, grappling with the enemy behind his works, hurling him
back dismayed and broken. Pursuing him from thence, marking
your path by the graves of fallen comrades, you again triumphed
over superior numbers at Dallas, fighting your way from there to
Kenesaw Mountain; and under the murderous artillery that
frowned from its rugged heights, with a tenacity and constancy
that finds few parallels, you labored, fought, and suffered through
the boiling rays of a southern midsummer sun, until at last you
planted your colors upon its topmost heights. Again, on the 22d
of July, 1864, rendered memorable through all time for the ter-
rible struggle you so heroically maintained under discouraging
disasters, and that saddest of all reflections, the loss of that
exemplary soldier and popular leader, the lamented McPherson,
your matchless courage turned defeat into a glorious victory.
Ezra Chapel and Jonesboro added new luster to a radiant record,
the latter unbarring to you the proud Gate City of the South.
The daring of a desperate foe in thrusting his legions northward,
exposed the country in your front, and though rivers, swamps,
and enemies opposed, you boldly surmojinted every obstacle,
beat down all opposition, and marched onward to the sea. With-
out any act to dim the brightness of your historic page, the world
rang plaudits when your labors and struggles culminated at
Savannah, and the old " Starry Banner " waved once more over
the walls of one of our proudest cities of the seaboard. Scarce a
breathing spell had passed when your colors faded from the coast,
and your columns plunged into the swamps of the Carolinas.
The sufferings you endured, the labors you performed, and the
514 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
successes you achieved in those morasses, deemed impassable,
form a creditable episode in the history of the war. Pocataligo,
Salkahatcbie, Edisto, Branchville, Orangeburgh, Columbia,
Bentonville, Charleston, and Ealeigh are names that will ever be
suggestive of the resistless sweep of your columns through the
territory that cradled and nurtured, and from whence was sent
forth on its mission of crime, misery, and blood, the disturbing
and disorganizing spirit of secession and rebellion.
The work for which you pledged your brave hearts and brawny
arms to the Government of your fathers you have nobly per-
formed. You are seen in the past, gathering through the gloom
that enveloped the land, rallying as the guardians of man's
proudest heritage, forgetting the thread unwoven in the loom,
quitting the anvil, and abandoning the workshops, to vindicate
the supremacy of the laws and the authority of the Constitution.
Four years have you struggled in the bloodiest and most destruc-
tive war that ever drenched the earth with human gore ; step by
step you have borne our standard, until to-rlay, over every fortress
and arsenal that rebellion wrenched from us, and over city, town,
and hamlet, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from ocean to ocean,
proudly floats the " Starry emblem " of our national unity and
strength.
Your rewards, my comrades, are the welcoming plaudits of a
grateful people, the consciousness that, in saving the Kepublie,
you have won for your country renewed respect and power at
home and abroad ; that in the unexampled era of growth and
prosperity that dawns with peace, there attaches mightier wealth
of pride and glory than ever before to that lov6d boast, " I am
an American citizen.'^
In relinquishing the implements of war for those of peace, let
your conduct, which was that of warriors in time of war, be that
of peaceful citizens in time of peace. Let not the luster of that
brighter name that you have won as soldiers be dimmed by any
improper acts as citizens, but as time rolls on let your record
grow brighter 9,nd brighter still.
John A. Logan,
Major- General,
514
BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
successes you achieved in those morasses, deemed impassable,
form a creditable episode in the history of the war. Pocataligo,
Salkahatchie, Edisto, Branchville, Orangeburgh, Columbia,
Bentonville, Charleston, and Ealeigh are names that will ever be
suggestive of the resistless sweep of your columns through the
territory that cradled and nurtured, and from whence was sent
forth on its mission of crime, misery, and blood, the disturbing
and disorganizing spirit of secession and rebellion.
The work for which you pledged your brave hearts and brawny
arms to the Government of your fathers you have nobly per-
formed. You are seen in the past, gathering through the gloom
that enveloped the land, rallying as the guardians of man's
proudest heritage, forgetting the thread unwoven in the loom,
quitting the anvil, and abandoning the workshops, to vindicate
the supremacy of the laws and the authority of the Constitution.
Four years have you struggled in the bloodiest and most destruc-
tive war that ever drenched the earth with human gore ; step by
step you have borne our standard, until to-day, over every fortress
and arsenal that rebellion wrenched from us, and over city, town,
and hamlet, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from ocean to ocean,
proudly floats the " Starry emblem " of our national unity and
strength.
Your rewards, my comrades, are the welcoming plaudits of a
grateful people, the consciousness that, in saving the Republic,
you have won for your country renewed respect and power at
home and abroad ; that in the unexampled era of growth and
prosperity that dawns with peace, there attaches mightier wealth
of pride and glory than ever before to that lov6d boast, " I am
an American citizen.'*'
In relinquishing the implements of war for those of peace, let
your conduct, which was that of warriors in time of war, be that
of peaceful citizens in time of peace. Let not the luster of that
brighter name that you have won as soldiers be dimmed by any
improper acts as citizens, but as time rolls on let your record
grow brighter md brighter still.
John" A. Logan,
Major-Generah
518 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
formance of duty than any officer of the regular army, has
never been pointed out. Why, therefore, they should say he
was the greatest of the volunteers, remains to be answered.
The writer believes that history, dealing with men and their
achievements, independent of the origin of their comr
missions, or fortuity of promotion, will place his military
genius on a par with that of the greatest commanders of the
age. He will be ranked as the peer of Von Moltke and Grant,
and in those qualities that contribute to success in war, he
will be placed above Sherman, Thomas, McPherson, or any of
his contemporaries of the Western Army.
In unison with the spirit which actuated the volunteers
who sprang to arms for the suppression of the insurrection of
the States, he resumed at once his avocation and prepared to
pick up the broken threads of his practice at the bar. He
was too strong a man, however, for the people to allow to
escape unnoticed in the ordinary walks of life, and ere long
was again summoned to his place of prominence in civil office
which the breaking out of the war had cut short in 1861.
Our histories are chiefly filled with the chronicles of wars,
and while distinction in civil pursuits is no less difficult of
attainment, it attracts less attention among the masses, and
is sooner forgotten. The greatest of politicians enjoy com-
paratively little renown for their labors. Their contem-
poraries in turn laud and execrate them ; the next gen-
eration dissects them ; the next venerates them, and the
next forgets them. The school-boy of to-day, as a rule,
knows something of Bonaparte, but next to nothing of Talley-
rand ; he is familiar with the battles of Washington, Knox,
and Wayne, but, probably, can scarcely recall a name in the
list of illustrious men who formulated, discussed, and adopted
the Constitution. While General Logan will be remembered
therefore chiefly for his military career, he in fact is one of
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 519
the few men in this country who has merited distinction in
both branches of public service. His faculty for both general-
ship and statecraft is much like that of Gustavus Adolphus,
who was a leader by instinct in politics, as well as in war.
His success in civil office has been in happy contrast with
that of many a great general. The "Iron Duke," for ex-
ample, after settling the destinies of Europe on the field,
returned to a life of bitter reverses as a member of the civil
government, and to the day of his death had metallic shutters
at his windows to protect his house from the stones of the
angry populace.
In obedience to the summons, General Logan accepted the
duties devolving upon him, and scarcely a measure of national
importance has been adopted by Congress during the past
eighteen years, in the shaping of which his influence has not
been felt. He has been an active worker upon prominent
committees, and although not heard so frequently upon the
floor as many others, he has accomplished much. In the
House, he was on the Committee of Ways and Means and the
Joint Committee on Ordnance, from March, 1867, to March,
1869, and from that time, up to 1871, on the Committee on
Pacific Eailroads, as well as chairman of the Committee on
Military Affairs. When advanced to the Senate, he served
on the Committees on Public Lands, Privileges and Elections,
Mines and Mining, Pensions, Military and Militia, of which
latter committee he has for some years been chairman. In
addition to these positions, he was upon various select com-
mittees during his first term as Senator, besides serving dur-
ing the year 1876-7 on the Finance Committee and the Select
Committee on the Count of the Electoral Vote. From De-
cember, 1879, to March, 1881, he served on the Committees
on Territories, Indian Affairs, Privileges and Elections, Mili-
tary Affairs, and. the Select Committee to Examine the Several
620 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Branches of the Civil Service. From the reorganization of
the Senate in 1881, he has served as chairman of the Com-
mittee on Military Affairs, as well as second upon the Ju-
diciary Committee, much of the time acting as chairman, on
the Committee on Appropriations, and the select committees
to Examine the Condition of the Sioux, and on the Improve-
ment of the Mississippi Eiver.
To resume our narrative : At the great meeting at Cooper
Institute in June, 1865, which was intended as an ovation to
capture the prominent Union generals who had been Democrats
prior to the rebellion, and enlist their services to aid in the
rehabilitation of the Democratic party in power in the affairs
of the nation. General Logan was called upon to make a speech,
being received with a long-continued storm of applause. That
speech is worthy of a place in any record of his life, but the
narrow scope of this work forbids its reproduction entire. A
few paragraphs will show its tenor. He said :
The great questions that have been before the people for the
last four years are now settled ; the rebellion is suppressed ;
slavery is forever dead ; the power of this great Grovernment has
been felt and is well understood, not only at home, but abroad ;
the supremacy of the laws of the country, with its Constitution,
has been maintained by the prowess of Americans ; the people of
America have satisfied themselves — for there was once some doubt
of it — that they can maintain the laws and the Constitution of
the land, suppress rebellion, and cause all men to bow in humble
submission to the constituted authorities.
Alluding to the object of the meeting further on, he con-
tinued :
My friend General Blair suggested an idea to me on this sub-
ject [the object of the meeting], that this meeting was called for
the purpose of approving the administration of President John-
son. [" Yes," " Yes," and cheers.] So far as his administration
THE PEEIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 523
has developed itself, I certainly have no fault to find with it.
[" Good," " Good."] What there may be to object to in the future
I don't know ; but if there is anything objectionable, then, as a
matter of course, as the questions arise the country will have a
right to decide for itself whether the President is in the right or
in the wrong.
After discussing those foreign affairs, then uppermost in the
public mind, and advising the demand of an indemnity from
England on account of the depredations of the rebel privateers,
and the expulsion of Maximilian from Mexico, he recurred to
the agitation for national repudiation, and said :
Let us then, when our country is restored, when the Union
once again is seen rising before us in all its majesty and beauty
— ^let us look upon it with pride, and remember with gratitude
that in the hour of trial we found a strong arm — the arm of the
people — ready to strike in its defense and to take it from the
grasp of the foul traitors who were clutching at its vitals, and to
guard and preserve it forever. And as we thus look gratefully
and proudly back upon our deliverance, let us at the same time
lay our hands upon our hearts and say, " Our nation has not only
maintained itself, it not only dazzles the world with its majesty
and power, but at the same time it can boast that its record is
spotless ; that it has not only shown itself willing to fight in war
for success, and ready to demand of other nations that which is
proper and right and just ; but at the same time, in order that
it may live on always as proudly and grandly as it has hved in
the past, it shall act as an honest man does toward his neighbor —
it shall pay its citizens, and everybody, every dollar and every
cent that it justly owes." [Great cheering.] By doing this, by
taking this course, we can always be proud of the name of Ameri-
cans, and other nations will point to us and say, " That country
has a record that no citizen living upon her soil need be ashamed
of in any court in the world."
His next important public speech was delivered in July of
that year, at Louisville, Ky., where he boldly enunciated some
truths to the Southerners which^ had they been accepted and
524 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
appreciated then, would have hastened that thorough rehabili-
tation of the Union which Logan hoped to see, but which was
not to come until a trying period of turbulence had been
passed, testing the statesmanship of those who were directing
the affairs of the nation to its uttermost. Said he :
The revolution we have just passed through has shaken from
center to circumference the civilized world. The war we have
just fought through is without a parallel in the annals of ages.
It has developed resources of power that have smitten mankind
with mingled admiration and amazement. Superficial observers
attribute its origin to a fanatical design to abohsh slavery, and
claim that this is the one only great result that has been accom-
plished. It had no such origin. The truth is, it was the bastard
bantling of ambition and avarice. Demagogues, aspiring to rise,
poured into the ear of credulous cupidity the poison of passion.
Capital is proverbially timid. Man is easily persuaded that his
estate is in danger. Sectional prejudices were exasperated.
Public distrust and private discontent, hand in hand, went stalk-
ing abroad at noonday over the land. "The Southern heart"
was fired — "fired with unmanly fear and unholy lusts." The
Southern mind was "instructed," wickedly instructed, in all the
subtle sinfulness of treason. The rest is history.
Among the results accomplished, it is true that the abolition
of slavery claims a high rank, but not the highest. The political
problem embraced in the proposition asserting man's capacity for
self-government was at stake. It involved freedom's fairest for-
tunes, civil liberty's last lingering hope. If man is not able to
govern himself he must wear the chains of slavery that tyrants
forge for his limbs, and can never be free ; and if the Government
of the United States had failed to sustain itself in this very first
ordeal through which its stability was called to pass, the glorious
orb of civil freedom must have gone down forever in gloom and
blood. Propagandism would have received a blow that would
have sent it staggering along its winding way for another thou-
sand years over Europe. Legitimacy would have taken a lease
for her crowns to her thrones for the same period, and man must
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 525
have been left to sleep another long, dark night of slavery and
despair.
******
This Government was fast attaining an altitude of national
prosperity that was filling all Europe with alarm. That pros-
perity was (and still is, thank Heaven) threatening to swallow up
the wealth of the world ; our growing power held every crown on
earth in awe. To have exploded the fundamental principles of
philosophy upon which such a government was erected would
have been indeed a great triumph for them. But the God of
battles has ordered it otherwise. The rebellion has been crushed,
the Union has been preserved, and our Government stands to-day
on a foundation of public faith against which neither the treach-
ery of treason nor the gates of hell can ever prevail. That great
political problem "still lives," and the ''Stars and Stripes " still
wave — and God grant that they shall ever wave — " o'er the land of
the free and the home of the brave," until
" Wrapt in flames the realms of ether glow,
And Heaven's last thunders shake the world below."
******
The institution of slavery was always a curse of the country
where it existed. * * * This peculiar institution prevents
public prosperity by multiplying monopohes, discouraging the
dissemination of knowledge, fostering indolence and ignorance,
degrading the humble, crippling industry, pandering to the pomp
of the proud, and crushing under the iron heel of social despotism
the aspirations of plebeian ambition. It fills the land with nabobs
who must have baronial estates in acres by the thousands to lord
it over. The owner of twenty thousand acres of land rarely ever
cultivates more than one thousand. Here then are nineteen
thousand acres of land lying idle, which, if owned by two hun-
dred industrious freemen who would cultivate it, might be made
to support a population of one thousand people, besides contribut-
ing liberally to the public revenue. But owned, as these large
estates have been in the South, by men who would neither cul-
tivate nor rent them out, that whole country has been, as it were,
under the lock and key of an aristocratic proprietorship which
526 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
amounted to an insuperable bar to immigration, effectually pre-
venting the increase — at least anything like a rapid increase — of
the white population, and naturally stunting the material growth
of the State.
With reference to the evil of illiteracy in the South, he said :
We look in vain through the Southern States for public schools.
Ignorance sits enthroned where the flowers bloom in mid-winter
and waste their fragrance upon the desert air. * * * *
There is but one use to which the State can put children — that
is, to educate them. Intelligence is Heaven's rarest gift to earth.
It is that attribute which gives men a claim to an affinity with
angels ; and that State is false to her most sacred trusts, as well
as to her most vital interests, that fails to develop all of her
mental resources. Had a wise system of popular education been
adopted at the South at the same time it was in the North, that
section might not be to-day, as it verily is, without the light of a
single great mind to guide it through the dark wilderness of its
troubles. Attribute, if you please, the degradation in which is
found buried the Southern mind either to a jealousy of education
or the selfishness of affluence, and still it is the institution of
slavery that causes it. Slaveholders constituted invariably a large
majority of their legislative bodies. Having the means to edu-
cate their own children, they failed to feel for others, and were
unwilling to vote for a measure appropriating the people's money
to the education of the poorer classes of society, and the conse-
quence is that in the rural regions of the South the people are
frequently found in whole communities totally destitute of the
simplest rudiments of an English education.
« « « « « 4c 4c
Why is it that, despite all of these immense advantages, the
North has so miraculously outstripped the South in prosperity ?
Why has New York outstripped Virginia? Ohio, Kentucky,
lUinois, Tennessee ? and any of the Western States all of the
Southern States ? The answer is to be found in the simple fact
that whenever and wherever you find slavery you find an insur-
mountable obstacle to national prosperity.
'llilLjIi,. :;:;l!illa^^^^^^
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 529
Slavery having once ceased to exist all over the South, her
portals thrown open to immigration, and Northern energy infused
into the people, it is easy to look into the future and behold a
destiny looming up for this bright land that shall make it at
least what it must have been designed to be from the first — the
garden of the universe.
After services on the stump in the campaign of 1865, he
was appointed and confirmed Minister to Mexico, but declined
the honor.
In 1866 he was offered the mission to Japan, but again
declined to enter the diplomatic service, preferring to remain
at home. The same year he was nominated by acclamation
by the Kepublican State Convention of Illinois, as Congress-
man-at-large, and although he had not sought the honor, he
accepted the place and made the canvass, being elected by a
majority of nearly 60,000 votes. His name began to be dis-
cussed in the public press for the United States Senate, the
people of Illinois being anxious for representation at the Capi-
tal of the nation by a man whose prominence had now become
world-wide.
He at once assumed a place in the front rank in the House
of Representatives, and in the discussion upon reconstruction
measures, gave vigorous expression to his views, which com-
manded attention in Congress and with the people.
In July, during the first session of the Fortieth Congress,
he delivered a powerful speech on the pending " Supplement-
ary Reconstruction Bill," in which occurred the following
passages :
What I am anxious to learn, Mr. Speaker, is upon what
foundation rests this flippant and gratuitous charge, repeatedly
made against the Eepublican party on this floor, to the effect
that we are trampling liberty under foot, and destroying the
rights and privileges of a portion of the American people ?
530 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Wherein have we violated the Constitution ? Was it in crush-
ing the rebellion ? I have no doubt every Copperhead in the
North would say yes. We did carry the emblem of our National
glory and greatness from the rivers and the lakes of the West
to the bays and the gulfs of the South, where it waves to-day,
and will wave forever ; but in doing so we innocently thought,
hoped, and believed then, and still honestly think, hope, and
believe, that we were erecting around the Constitution impreg-
nable bulwarks, and laying for liberty a deeper and a broader
foundation in the gratitude, confidence, and affections of our
people. We never dreamed that for every rebel we killed in
the South we were to make an eternal enemy in the North ;
and we do think it amounts to a riddle beyond the comprehen-
sion of mortal wits, how it is that very many of the brave men
who fought us, and whom we had to literally overwhelm before
we could conquer, now that they are conquered are much more
ready to ask forgiveness, and forget the past and be friends, as
we all ought to be again, than are their allies, who, however
deep their sympathy with them may have been while the war
was raging, took special pains to let the danger pass before they
gave it an airing. God forbid that the day shall ever dawn
upon this Eepublic when the patriots whose patriotism won
them crutches and wooden limbs shall have apologies and ex-
planations to make for their public-spirited conduct to patriots
who boast of and abuse the privilege of eulogizing as their
brethren the men whose sabres drank loyal blood and whose
bullets shot away loyal limbs.
The next greatest wrong that they have to complain of is,
that the men who had the pluck to stand by those who in the
field had to fight our country's battles, presumptuously aspire
to make our laws. I think thus far these have vindicated their
claims to tbe world's respect alike on the field and in the halls
of legislation. What is the basis upon which they fought?
Simply that rebellion was a crime. They triumphed. Now
upon what basis have they legislated ? Simply that rebellion
was a crime — and they will triumph again. The people will
never require us to fight upon one principle and legislate on
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 531
another — to shed our blood on the field, and then come here to
make apologies for it to men who wanted us whipped.
*******
When the South can be loyally represented on this floor upon
the basis proposed by Congress, the problem of reconstruction
will cease to vex the discussions of this hall.
The prime, sole, and supreme object of the Eepublican party
is to re-establi&h this Government upon a sure foundation of
loyalty, against which the frothy waves of treason may fret
forever in vain. We have survived one rebellion, and the sage
suggestions of past experience warn us that it will be wiser to
prevent another rebellion than to too confidently expect to sur-
vive it. ,
*******
The reason why these gentlemen desire to-day to bring into
disrepute the action of members of this House is because their
action is calculated to prevent a portion of the people of the
Southern country, who are in full sympathy with them, from
voting and holding office. Who are they? Outspoken rebels,
who rose in arms against the Government ; the men who con-
spired to destroy this glorious Republic. Because these men
are disfranchised and prevented from exercising the rights of
American citizens, gentlemen on the other side object to our
proposed plan of reconstruction. Sir, they would have the
Southern States reconstructed according to the plan of Andrew
Johnson, the gentleman who is so immaculate that if we should
attempt to impeach him it will, according to the gentleman
from Brooklyn, amount to a public calamity. What was the
plan of Andrew Johnson ? Why, sir, that plan proposed to
declare that those States that had engaged in rebellion had
never lost any of their rights in the Government ; that neither
they nor their citizens had forfeited any of their privileges
under the Constitution of the United States. In other words,
that treason was not a crime, that rebels were patriots. It pro-
posed to invite the rebels to hold elections, and send to this
hall jper se secessionists and traitors. In short, to construct a
new party in reconstructing the Government, in which the
532 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
secession rebels of the South might unite with the Copperhead
rebels of the North, capture the citadel of power here, make
treason honorable and loyalty odious. There is nothing that, to
regain its lost power, the Democratic party would not wilMngly
do. If it could acquire to-morrow more power by crushing
under its iron heel the South than it could by succoring it, it
would hurl at its Southern brethren thick and fast — ,
" Curses of hate and hisses of scorn."
Their history well establishes the fact that —
" Their friendship is a lurking snare,
Their honor but an idle breath,
Their smile the smile that traitors wear ;
Their love is hate, their life is death."
Their sympathy with Andrew Johnson's plan of reconstruc-
tion and their hostility to the Republican plan of reconstruction
is not attributable to the merits or demerits of either plan as a
policy for the country, but solely as a party policy.
4c « « « % 4: 4:
They seemed to have forgotten the price the peace we enjoy
to-day has cost this Nation, and the crimson currency in which
it was paid ; the broken hearts with which it filled bruised and
troubled bosoms at home ; the mangled bodies with which it
filled the hospitals everywhere, and the lifeless forms of manly
beauty with which it filled hundreds of thousands of nameless
graves on the far-off battle-plains of the South. They seem to
have forgotten the bitter, scalding tears that rolled like floods
of lava down the fair faces of the loyal mothers, wives, and sisters
of this land when the names ineffably dear to them were found
announced in the long lists of the killed that were published as
a sequel to the first flash of the lightning that reported a battle
had been fought ; and I dare say they have forgotten that there
ever was such a prison as Andersonville, and the long, long
catalogue of horrors that brave men had to suffer there for
being true to themselves, their Constitution, their flag, their
homes, families, and country. Well for such gentlemen would
it be if they could occasionally meet, as they wander daily over
THE PEKIOD OF EECONSTEUCTION. 535
this broad country, a few of the many wan specters of suffering
and woe who were captured by the saintly Southern brethren
of Northern Democrats on fields of strife, thrust into prisons
unfit for dogs, and starved till a hale constitution was a wreck,
and then left to suffer the worst penalties of privation incident
to weather and climate. I could give my friend from Brooklyn
illustrations of individual suffering at Audersonville that would
make the hair stand on his head, the blood freeze in his veins,
and curses spring involuntarily to his lips. I remember one
poor boy from my immediate vicinity, especially. His name is
Dougherty. He went into Andersonville prison without a scar
on his young body or a cloud on his fair brow, but under the
humanitarianism of Southern chivalry he came out without a
foot to walk on. They were literally frozen off in prison.
In the fall of 18G7, General Logan declined the proffered
honor of the nomination for Grovernor of Illinois, which he
was earnestly urged to take by the press and the Kepublican
party of the State generally.
In 1868 the Order of the Grand Army of the Eepublic was
organized at Decatur, in his native State, and he was elected
Commander-in-Chief. On the 5th of May, of that year, he
issued the order which he has since characterized as the
proudest act of his life, setting apart the 30th of May for the
decoration of the graves of those who fell in the defense of the
Union. The order ran as follows :
Headquaeters Grand Army of the Eepublic,
Adjutant-General's Office,
446 14th Street, Washington, D. C, May 5, 1868.
General Orders No. 11.
I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose
of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of
comrades who died in defense of their country during the late
rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village,
hamlet, and church-yard in the land. In this observance no form
536 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will, in their
own way, arrange such, fitting services and testimonials of respect
as circumstances may permit.
We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the
purpose, among other things, "of preserving and strengthening
those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the
soldiers, sailors, and marines who united together to suppress
the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than
by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who
made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes.
Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in
chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms.
We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that
the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their
adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of
her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such
hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and
going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism
of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or
to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people,
the cost of a free and undivided Republic.
If other eyes grow dull, and other hands slack, and other
hearts grow cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as
long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred
remains, and garland the passionless mounds above them with
the choicest flowers of spring-time ; let us raise above them the
dear old flag they saved from dishonor ; let us, in this solemn
presence, renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they
have left among us — a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude —
the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.
II. It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate
this observance, with the hope that it will be kept up from year
to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory
of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press
to call attention to this order, and lend its friendly aid in bring-
ing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country, in
time for simultaneous compliance therewith.
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 537
111. Department commanders will use every effort to make
this order effective.
By order of John A. Logan",
Commander-in- Chief.
Official. N". P. Ohipman", Adjutant- General.
This observance having struck a key-note in the hearts
of the Nation, General Logan introduced in Congress that
year a resolution which resulted in making the day a National
holiday, which was unanimously adopted, as follows :
Resolved, That the proceedings of the different cities,
towns, etc., recently held in commemoration of the gallant
heroes who have sacrificed their lives in defense of the Republic,
and the record of the ceremonial of the decoration of the hon-
ored tombs of the departed, shall be collected and bound, under
the direction of such person as the Speaker shall designate, for
the use of Congress.
On the 24th day of February, 1868, the House of Repre-
sentatives gravely resolved, for the first time in the history of
the United States, to resort to its Constitutional prerogative,
to impeach the President of the United States for high crimes
and misdemeanors. The eleven articles of impeachment were
agreed to on the 2d of March, and two days later were pre-
sented to the Senate by the managers on the part of the
House, of whom General Logan was one. In the ensuing
trial of Andrew Johnson, which lasted from the 13th of March
to the 26th of May, General Logan took a prominent part,
making a legal argument which convicted the President be-
fore the country, although he escaped the just verdict for his
crimes by a slender margin of one vote. There were fifty-four
Senators before whom the case was tried, as the High Council
of the Nation, and two-thirds, or thirty-six votes, were neces-
sary for a conviction. Upon no less than three of the several
538 BIOGRAPHY OP GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
articles of impeachment the votes stood — thirty-five guilty to
nineteen not guilty. A vote of thirty-six to eighteen would
have displaced him from office. In the course of his argu-
ment in this case, Manager Logan, in behalf of the House,
said :
I wish to assure you. Senators, — I wish most earnestly and sin-
cerely to assure the learned and honorable counsel for the de-
fense,— that we speak not only for ourselves, but for the great
body of people, when we say that we regret this occasion, and
we regret the necessity which has devolved this duty upon us.
Heretofore, sirs, it has been the pride of every American to
point to the Chief Magistrate of his nation. It has been his
boast that to that great ofiice have always been brought the most
pre-eminent purity, the most undoubted integrity, and the most
unquestioned loyalty which the country could produce. How-
ever fierce might be the strife of party, however clamorous
might be the cry of politics, however desperate might be the
struggles of leaders and of factions, it has always been felt that
the President of the United States was an administrator of the
law in all its force and example, and would be a promoter of the
welfare of his country in all its perils and adversities. Such
have been the hopes and such has been the reliance of the
people at large ; and in consequence the Chief Executive chair
has come to assume in the hearts of Americans a form so sacred
and a name so spotless that nothing impure could attach to the
one and nothing dishonorable could taint the other. To do
aught or to say aught which will disturb this cherished feeling
will be to destroy one of the dearest impressions to which our
people cling.
And yet, sirs, this is our duty to-day. We are here to show
that President Johnson, the man whom this country once hon-
ored, is unfitted for his place. We are here to show that in his
person he has violated the honor and sanctity of his office. We
are here to show that he usurped the power of his position and
the emoluments of his patronage. We are here to show that he
has not only willfully violated the law, but has maliciously com-
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 541
manded its infringement. We are here to show that he has
deliberately done those things which he ought not to have done,
and that he has criminally left undone those things which he
ought to have done.
He has betrayed his countrymen that he might perpetuate
his power, and has sacrificed their interests that he might swell
his authority. He has made the good of the people surbordinate
to his ambition, and the harmony of the community second to
his desires. He has stood in the way which would have led the
dismembered States back to prosperity and peace, and has insti-
gated them to the path which led to discord and to strife. He
has obstructed acts which were intended to heal, and has coun-
seled the course which was intended to separate. The differ-
ences which he might have reconciled by his voice he has stimu-
lated by his example. The questions which might have been
amicably settled by his acquiescence have been aggravated by
his insolence ; and in all those instances whereof we in our ar-
ticles complain, he has made his prerogatives a burden to the
Commonwealth instead of a blessing to his constituents.
And it is not alone that in his public course he has been
shameless and guilty, but that his private conduct has been in-
cendiary and malignant. It is not only that he has notoriously
broken the law, but that he has criminally scoffed at the framers
of the law. By public harangue and by political arts he has
sought to cast odium upon Congress and to insure credit for
himself ; and thus, in a Government where equal respect and
dignity should be observed in reference to the power and author-
ity conferred upon each of its several departments, he has at-
tempted to subvert their just proportions and to arrogate to
himself their respective jurisdictions. It is for these things.
Senators, that to-day he stands impeached ; and it is because of
these that the people have bid us prosecute. That we regret it,
I have said ; that they regret it, I repeat ; and though it tears
away the beautiful belief with which, like a drapery, they had
invested the altar, yet they feel that the time has come when
they must expose and expel the sacrilegious priest in order to
protect and preserve the purity of the temple.
5^ BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOaAN.
* * * * * * * ^
The world in after-times will read the history of the admin-
istration of Andrew Johnson as an illustration of the depth to
which political and official perfidy can descend. Amid the un-
healed, ghastly scars of war; surrounded by the weeds of
widowhood and cries of orphanage; associating with and sus-
tained by the soldiers of the Eepublic of whom at one time he
claimed to be one ; surrounded by the men who had supported,
aided, and cheered Mr. Lincoln through the darkest hours and
sorest trials of his sad yet immortal administration— men whose
lives had been dedicated to the cause of justice, law, and uni-
versal liberty — the men who had nominated and elected him to
the second office in the nation at a time when he scarcely dared
visit his own home because of the traitorous instincts of his own
people; yet, as shown by his official acts, messages, speeches,
conversations, and associations, almost from the time when the
blood of Lincoln was warm on the floor of Ford's Theater, An-
drew Johnson was contemplating treason to all the fresh fruits
of the overthrown and crushed rebellion, and an affiliation with,
and a practical, official, and hearty sympathy for, those who had
cost us hecatombs of slain citizens, billions of treasure, and an
almost ruined country. His great aim and purpose has been
to subvert law, usurp authority, insult and outrage Congress,
reconstruct the rebel States in the interests of treasons, insult .
the memories and resting-places of our heroic dead, outrage the
feehngs and deride the principles of the living men who aided in
saving the Union, and deliver all that was snatched from wreck
and ruin into the hands of unrepentant, but by him pardoned,
traitors.
*******
We are not doubtful of your verdict. Andrew Johnson has
long since been tried by the whole people and found guilty, and
you can but confirm that judgment already pronounced by the
sovereign American people.
But an imperfect idea of the scope of the argument can be
gathered from these brief extracts of a speech that covered
THE PERIOD OP RECONSTRUCTION. 543
nearly twenty pages of the Kecord ; but suffice it to say, that
the most scholarly lawyers of the time pronounced it a legal
statement of the case that could not be surpassed.
General Logan has always been prominent, during his career
in Congress, for his efforts to secure the fulfillment by the
Government of its sacred contract with the soldiers, by pen-
sioning the survivors of our various wars, in accordance with
the demands of justice. In 1868, the House having under con-
sideration the bill to pension the soldiers of the war of 1812,
General Logan, during the progress of a speech in favor of the
measure, spoke as follows :
I ask the gentlemen of the House to reflect for one moment upon
the principle on which we grant a pension to a soldier. In grant-
ing pensions, do we vote with reference to the amount of money,
small or large, that the payment of the pensions will take ? No,
sir. We pass such acts upon the principle that the soldier has
done his duty to his country, and that the country is under ob-
ligation to provide for him for the remainder of his life, if he need
such provision. When we grant pensions to wounded soldiers,
we do not inquire how many wounded soldiers there are, and how
much money it will take to provide a pension for all of them.
We do not determine the question upon any such conditions.
We vote pensions because we believe that a man who, in defend-
ing his country, has met the shock of battle and has thus received
wounds, deserves the gratitude of his country, and is entitled to
its protecting care in his declining years.
I say, then, in reference to this bill, that the men for whom it
is intended to provide are entitled to pensions. Why ? Not be-
cause they are few or because they are many, but because they
defended the liberties of this country at a time when their defense
was needed.
Being re-nominated, by acclamation, for Congress from the
State-at-large, he was also elected a delegate to the National
Republican Convention that year, where he headed the Illinois
544 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
delegation, and placed General Grant in nomination for Pres-
ident of the United States.
In the House of Kepresentatives, on the 16th of July, he
made a review of the public questions which were before the
country at that time, which cannot fail to be read with in-
terest. In the course of this speech he handled the Demo-
cratic party without gloves, uncovering their position, dissect-
ing their platform, and demonstrating in unmistakable terms
why it would be suicidal policy for the country to allow the
afiairs of the nation to pass under their management. Inas-
much as it holds up a mirror to the situation in public affairs
at that time, several extracts will be given from it. Copying
from the oflS.cial records of the House, Mr. Logan's speech ap-
pears, in part, as follows :
Mr. Chairman, the Democratic platform is a "whited sepul-
cher, full of dead men's bones." It is a monument which is
intended to hide decay and conceal corruption. Like many
other monuments, it attracts attention by its vast proportions,
and excites disgust by the falsity of its inscriptions. The casual
observer, knowing nothing of the previous life of the deceased,
who reads this eulogy upon the tomb, might imagine that all the
virtues, the intellect, and the genius of the age were buried
there. But to him who knows that the hfe had been a Uving
lie, an incessant pursuit of base ends, the stone is a mockery
and the panegyric a fable.
It is my purpose to show, sir, that this Democratic platform is
a mockery of the past, and that its promises for the future are
hollow, evasive, and fabulous ; that it disregards the sanctities of
truth, and deals only in the language of the juggler. It is like
the words of the weird witches who wrought a noble nature to
crime and ruin, and then in the hour of dire extremity
" Kept the word of promise to the ear,
And broke it to the hope."
What are the pledges of this platform, made by a party which
now asks place and power for themselves, and retirement and
ti[i;ii;iii
' 1
&m
'm '■'i,„ ,
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 547
obscurity for us ? They pledge peace to the country. Well, sir,
the country should have peace. They pledge a uniform and
valuable currency to the country. Sir, the country desires such
a currency. They pledge economy in the administration of the
Government. Judicious economy is among the first maxims of
government. They pledge payment of the pubhc debt and
reduction of taxation. I agree that the public credit must be
preserved at all hazards, and that taxation should be reduced by
all means. They pledge reform of all abuses. Sir, when once
an abuse is discovered, no man will deny that it should be at
once reformed. They pledge the observance of the laws, the
guarantees of the Constitution, the rights of the people, and the
promotion of the public weal.
**** *****
It requires an unusual condition of pubhc affairs to produce
such an unusual platform, and we require to know what that
condition is before we can Judge of it. Let us see what is the
condition, and what produced it. A very few years ago the
Democratic party was in power. They had been in power for
many, many years before. Whatever of good there was in their
policy they had had time to develop it. Whatever of evil there
was, they had had opportunity to correct it. They did neither
the one thing nor the other. There were no hostile armies then.
The people imagined that there was peace. A few only believed
that there could be war. But war was imminent. Under the
surface of peace that party was preparing for war. In the
council-chambers of the Nation they howled for war. In the
different departments of the Government where they were
trusted and uncontrolled they were preparing for war. In the
minds of the young and unsuspecting they sowed the seeds of
war. In their newspapers they threatened war. In the lecture-
room, in the college, from the pulpit and the rostrum they
invoked war ; and finally, when they judged the time had come
when the Nation was most helpless and the weapons of defense
most useless, they made war — and war of what kind ? Actual
war, treasonable war — war against those who had loved and
fostered them— upon co-dwellers under the same roof and
548 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
brothers by birth and blood. How did war find us ? It found us
as the ship is found when pirates scuttle her — open to the mercy
of the waves, and ready to be engulfed.
We had made no preparation for war. The military and naval
establishments were on a peace footing, and even the skeleton
had been disjointed. Treason was in the high places, and con-
sternation pervaded everywhere else. That which might have
been eflBcient in a pinch had been weakened by treachery or par-
alyzed by surprise. We had few troops, few guns, few forts, few
sail, and few commanders. Scarcely a man in the North out of
the regular service knew the first movements in the school of the
soldier. The knowledge of arms had not been sought, and
material and munition of war had been sparsely provided. We
had no money to carry on a war. We had no policy declared to
carry us through a war. But war, bloody, dreadful, disrupting,
came upon us, and we had to meet it as best we could. The first
thing was to get money. We issued the greenbacks. Whether
that was the wisest thing to be done is not the question. At
that time it seemed to be the only thing we could do, and there-
fore we did it.
In so far as we could we struggled to keep down our debt and
to keep up our credit. What else ? We found slavery had been
a cause of war ; but we found also that war abolished slavery.
What next ? We found those who had been slaves were true ;
and those who should have been true were false. We gave the
slave a musket because we found he was a man ; and we gave
him a ballot that he might be a citizen. And so, sir, under
these disabilities and against all these disadvantages we fought
out that fight. We subdued the rebelhon — we ended the war.
It is not true, then, that the Democratic Party will give peace
to the country. They have been the party of war, and by the
written declarations of their candidate for Vice-President they
propose more war unless they can undo all the victory we have
achieved, and renew rebellion where we have quieted it. I read,
Mr. Chairman, a letter written by Major-Greneral F. P. Blair to
Colonel Broadhead, of St. Louis:
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 549
" Washington, June 30, 1868.
" Dear Colonel : In reply to your inquiries I beg leave to say-
that I leave to you to determine, on consultation with my friends
from Missouri, whether my name shall be presented to the Demo-
cratic Convention, and to submit the following as what I con-
sider the real and only issue in this contest :
" The reconstruction policy of the Eadicals will be complete
before the next election ; the States so long excluded will have
been admitted, negro suffrage established, and the carpet-baggers
installed in their seats in both branches of Congress. There is
no possibility of changing the political character of the Senate,
even if the Democrats should elect their President and a majority
of the popular branch of Congress. We cannot, therefore, undo
the Eadical plan of reconstruction by Congressional action ; the
Senate will continue a bar to its repeal. Must we submit to it ?
How can it be overthrown ? It can only be overthrown by the
authority of the Executive, who is sworn to maintain the Con-
stitution, and who will fail to do his duty if he allows the Con-
stitution to perish under a series of Congressional enactments
which are in palpable violation of its fundamental principles.
"If the President elected by the Democracy euforces or permits
others to enforce these reconstruction acts, the Eadicals, by the
accession of twenty spurious Senators and fifty Eepresentatives,
will control both branches of Congress, and his Administration
will be as powerless as the present one of Mr. Johnson.
" There is but one way to restore the Government and the
Constitution, and that is for the President-elect to declare these
acts null and void, compel the army to undo its usurpations at
the South, disperse the carpet-bag State governments, allow the
white people to reorganize their own governments, and elect
Senators and Eepresentatives. The House of Eepresentatives
will contain a majority of Democrats from the North, and they
will admit the Eepresentatives elected by the white people of the
South, and with the co-operation of the President it will not be
difficult to compel the Senate to submit once more to the obli-
gations of the Constitution. It wiU not be able to withstand
the public judgment if distinctly invoked and clearly expressed
on this fundamental issue, and it is the sure way to avoid all
future strife to put the issue plainly to the country.
"I repeat that this is the real and only question which we
should allow to control us : ShaU we submit to the usurpations
by which the Government has been overthrown, or shall we exert
ourselves for its full and complete restoration ? It is idle to talk
550 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
of bonds, greenbacks, gold, the public faith, and the public
credit. What can a Democratic President do in regard to any of
these, with a Congress in both branches controlled by the carpet-
baggers and their allies ? He will be powerless to stop the sup-
plies by which idle negroes are organized into political clubs — by
which an army is maintained to protect these vagabonds in their
outrages upon the ballot. These, and things like these, eat up
the revenue and resources of the Government and destroy its
credit — make the difference between gold and greenbacks. We
must restore the Constitution before we can restore the finances,
and to do this we must have a President who will execute the
will of the people by trampling into dust the usurpation of Con-
gress known as the reconstruction acts. I wish to stand before
the Convention upon this issue, but it is one which embraces
everything else that is of value in its large and comprehensive
results. It is the one thing that includes all that is worth a
contest, and without it there is nothing that gives dignity,
honor, or value to the struggle.
*' Your friend,
"Frank P. Blair.
" Colonel James 0. Broadhead."
Is this the language of peace ? Is this the pledge of security
to the country ? Is this the return to the settled pursuits of
civil life and the calm routine of trade, which shall reassure our
people and restore our prosperity ? Does it not rather suggest the
clarion-trump and the clash of arms — the neigh of steed and
the shriek of death ? Are our taxes to be lessened under these
threats ? Will our credit be made better by these means ? * *
Where, now, are the pledges of specie payment, of redeemed
bonds, of equal currency, of wise legislation, of amicable feeling,
of restored confidence, of judicious economy and reduced taxa-
tion ? Gone ! gone ! The loud note of insurrection has dis-
pelled them all, and the possibility of our national parliament
being dissolved by the sword, as in Cromwell's day, has put all
lingering hope to flight. We are promised a uniform and valu-
able currency — one currency — which is to be sufficient " for the
Government and the people, the laborer and the office-holder,
the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder."
We are promised "payment of the public debt as rapidly as
KAISING THE FLAG AT JACKSON, MISS.
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 553
practicable." "We are notified of "equal taxation of eyery
species of property, including bonds and other securities."
"We have heard that much of our miseries are due to the
'* bloated bondholder." They are lepers who have infected us in
our persons and tainted our financial atmosphere. But they are
assured by this platform that " they need have no fears that
their property is to be swept away by a new inundation of paper
money."
If these bonds are vile as they say, why should they not be
swept away under a Democratic dispensation ? We do not think
they are: but if we are to rely on Democratic testimony they are
the gangrene of our body politic. Again, if there is to be no
" new inundation of paper money," how are the greenbacks to be
raised which, levied in taxation, are to pay off the national debt ?
First, it is said, they will raise greenbacks by taxation and pay
off the bonds. It must be admitted that the greenbacks already
in circulation are not adequate for this, and so more must be is-
sued. But next it is said that there will be no more issued. Then
how are the bonds to be paid ? It may be that this is all clear
to other eyes, and that the end will certainly be reached by the
means ; but I trust I may be pardoned if I confess at once that I
am not able to take that " intelligent view " which shows me
how it is to be done. * * *
There is another part of the platform which has a pertinent
bearing on this subject. It is the declaration in favor of " one
currency for the Government and the people, for the bondholder
and the producer." Now, although nothing is expressly said
upon that point, we suppose the platform contemplates the pay-
ment of the duties on imports in coin as heretofore. This seems
to us a justifiable, nay, an inevitable inference from what is said
about paying in coin such obligations of the Government as
stipulate for coin upon their face. The interest upon both the
ten-forty and the five-twenty bonds is payable in coin by the
very terms of the law, and also the principal of the ten-forties.
If the Government keeps this express engagement, it must by
some means raise the coin, and no other method is suggested
554 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
than by collecting it, as now, at the custom-houses. Kow, as
the platform pledges the party to pay specie to the bondholders
to meet their interests and that part of their principal which the
law requires to be paid in coin, it seems evident that the "one
currency for the Government and the people, the bondholder and
the producer," must contemplate an early return to specie pay-
ments. The ''one currency" must mean either a uniform good
currency or a uniform bad currency. It is inconceivable in it-
self and inconsistent with the platform that the old, hard-money
Democratic party should promise a uniform currency of bad
money. The one currency means a sound currency ; a currency
equivalent to coin and at all times exchangeable for it. One
currency of depreciated greenbacks would be inconsistent with
the payment in coin of that part of the public obligations which
are acknowledged by the platform to be due in coin ; inconsistent
with the collection of the revenue from imports in gold ; incon-
sistent with the idea that we are ever to return to specie payments.
« « 4: 4: « 4: 4:
The country wants peace ; through peace will come prosperity.
Prosperity thrives under a government of fixed principles, and
principles are most firmly fixed when they are most generally
and best understood by the people at large. If their finances
fail, aU else fails. Now, what do they say upon another most
essential and remunerative branch of the national finances — that
branch which is now and must continue to be the only gold-
yielding portion of our revenue — I mean the tariff ? I quote,
sir, from the World:*
"There is only one other subject embraced in the platform
which seems to call for any remark, and that is the tariff, or
'protection.' This part of the platform is a muddle. The lan-
guage is a 'tariff for revenue upon foreign imports,' which is
good, sound Democratic doctrine, but it is immediately followed
by this unintelligible jumble : ' and such equal taxation under
the internal-revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to
domestic manufactures.' We are here treated to the paradox of
a revenue tariff and protective internal taxes. But the wonder
does not end here. A protective tariff discriminates, but internal
taxes are to protect without discriminating. It is * equal ' inter-
* Of New York, democratic.
TSE PEKiOD OF feECONSTRUCTlON. 555
lial taxes that are to accomplish the feat of protecting domestic
manufactures. If all interests are taxed alike, how can any be
protected ? What are they to be protected against ? Not against
foreign rivals by internal taxes; not against domestic competi-
tion by equal taxes. The promise of a * tariff for revenue ' is
excellent ; all beyond that is nonsense."
You will observe, Mr. Chairman, that it is not I who says that
this is a muddle, an unintelligible jumble, a paradox, and non-
sense, but the leading Seymour paper in the United States.
* 4: 4: 4: 4: « *
I desire, with your indulgence, to go a little behind the prom-
ise to inquire as to the character of those who make the promise.
It is an axiom with all business men that the value of a note is
determined not at all by what it promises to pay, but wholly and
exclusively by the character of the makers and indorsers. I wish
to inquire, Mr. Chairman, who are the men that made np that
Democratic Convention, and who are the men who indorsed its
candidates ? I have already referred to the men who in time of
peace plotted war. I have shown how it was that this country
became charged with its load of debt. I have dwelt upon the
struggles and the difificulties of that hour, and the wails and the
woes of our mourners. I have stated how we did all that we
did, because it was the only thing to do. I have shown how we
wrestled with our adversary, and finally how we overcame our
enemies. We bore the brunt of arms for the sake of our Country,
and to uphold its Constitution, its laws, and its liberties. AVe
had but one desire, and that was " Peace to our country." We
had but one anxiety, and that was to preserve intact this chosen
land. Well, sir, as I said, the war was over and the victory was
ours. There was no longer a rebel in arms. They had dispersed,
as we supposed, never to meet again.
But, sir, we were mistaken. They have met again. Where ?
Why, this time upon Northern soil and in a Northern city — in
the City of New York, the gi-eat metropolis of this country — in
the Democratic Convention. I do not say that every man who
met there had been a rebel ; but I do say that all the rebels met
there who are now leadi'ng in public life, and who hope for pub-
^56 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN, JOHN A. LoGAN.
lie position. It was the same old story over again ; the same old
faces to see. The men who had held this Government for years
and plotted to destroy it while they held it, were there. The men
who fought to destroy this Government when they could no
longer hold it, were there. The men who, though they had never
plotted to destroy it or fought against it, yet quietly acquiesced
in the designs of those who did, were there. The men who have
always given blind allegiance to the behest of party, regardless of
the good of the country, were there. The men who have always
been the praters and croakers and false prophets of the country
were there ; and a few men who had once served their country,
but were lured off by fatal ambition and the hope of spoils, were
there. Good men may have been there, but bad men were most
certainly there ; and just as certainly the bad outnumbered the
good. And these are the men, sir, who complain of us. These
are the men who say we have violated the law and have usurped
the Constitution. We have told them to the contrary many and
many a time. In these very halls, before they deserted their
places, we assured them that we desired nothing but the law and
the Constitution. After they had erected their first batteries, and
before they fired on Fort Sumter, they were again assured that the
law and the Constitution should be kept inviolate. Even after
they had waged their fiercest war upon us the President of the
United States once more proclaimed that we fought only to pro-
tect the Constitution and the laws.
I have no desire to keep ahve old animosities or to recall the
past with a view to let it rankle. I am willing that the lessons
of the war should be their own monitor to those who learned
them. But when I hear those who risked their lives to save our
country ; when I hear those whose shorn limbs and maimed trunks
are witnesses of their devotion to the laws, charged with break-
ing the laws ; when I hear those who are now lying in their pre-
mature graves for the cause of the Constitution, charged with
usurping that Constitution, — I cannot help it if my indignant
heart beats fast and my utterance grows thick, while I demand to
know "Who are ye that denounce us?"
It is for this reason; Mr, Chairman; that I say the present
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 559
issue is one which concerns our young men greatly, because it
contains the question whether in any future war it is worth while
for them to embark in it. Heretofore it has always been held
in all ages, ancient and modern, that he who defended his coun-
try was entitled to the gratitude of his country. But if it shall
be decided by this election that he who defends his country is to
be aspersed by his country, then the sooner it is understood the
better it will be for those who would have otherwise periled their
existence at the call of their people.
*******
Speaking of the objects to be gained by the Republican
party, General Logan said :
Our name shall be respected abroad, for we shall have demon-
strated the doctrine of self-government. Our bonds will be
sought for investment, for we shall have vindicated our integrity.
Our currency shall be unsuspected at home, for we shall have
proved its value. Our revenue shall be increased, for the coun-
try will have become inspired with confidence. Bad men will be
hurled from power, and honest ones put in their places. Our
taxes shall be diminished, for all will unite in yielding them.
The Southern States will be reorganized and recognized, for they
will have seen that therein lies their welfare.
We will go on, sir, as a Nation, hand-in-hand, treading the
broad pathway which leads us up to prosperity and progress, with
our march unimpeded by the difficulties which now surround us,
and posterity shall bless our work unceasingly forever.
In the political campaign of that fall, General Logan took
the stump, speaking in many places in various parts of the
Union, to vast gatherings of the people. Inasmuch as his
position upon finance has been somewhat under discussion, it
will be well to reproduce portions of an oration delivered Sep-
tember 1, at Morris, 111., which was printed in the Chicago
Republican, covering two pages of the paper. It affords, also,
a good specimen of the style on the hustings, of a popular
orator who never fails to captivate the jpeople. He said ;
560 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Now, my fellow-citizens, I want to add, inasmuch as I am
upon this subject of expense, that our debt being 12,510,000,000
and a little over, we, the Eepublican party, propose to pay that
debt. [Cheers and great applause.] That is to say, if we con-
trol the government we propose that that debt shall be paid.
[Eenewed applause.] And not only paid, but we also propose
that the Democrats and rebels, or rebels and Democrats [ap-
plause] shall help to pay it. [Tremendous enthusiasm.] Yes,
we propose that. [Loud applause.]
Now, how do we intend to do that ? I differ with the Democ-
racy in this country. I am not in a hurry to pay this, and I will
give you my reasons for saying and feeling so. Our proposition
is to liquidate this debt in twenty-five, thirty, or forty years.
And why do we propose to do that? In that length of time,
owing now $2,510,000,000, — if we reduce the public debt as
rapidly as we have within the last two years — how long will it
take to pay it, reducing taxation at the same time ? Why, we
shall cancel it in twenty-five years ; at the same time — mind
that ! — at the same time doing away with taxation almost en-
tirely. We will pay it in twenty-five years without our feeling
it, by a tariff that will not be oppressive to the people, and by a
light income-tax, together with a tax upon the luxuries of life.
That is the policy of the Eepublican party. [Great applause and
long cheering.]
We proposed, this last Congress, to fund this debt, and to fund
it so that the interest would only be four to ' four and a half per
cent instead of five and six per cent. But Mr. Johnson stuck
the bill in his pocket, and it didn't become a law. But, accord-
ing to the platform of the Eepublican Convention, we make the
proposition to reduce the interest on the public debt and thereby
lighten the burdens of the people. And we propose to do it,
not by passing a law that a man shall take this thing for that,
but to do it in such a way that it will cause the bondholders to
exchange the one bond for the other by letting that other run a
longer time at a lower rate of interest, as is the policy of England
and other European powers, because the great capitalists prefer a
]t)ond running thirty or forty years, instead of — say ten — as it
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 561
saves them the trouble of reinvesting the money. And for that
reason a bond running for a long term of years is better than one
running for a short term, and can be put upon the market at a
lower rate of interest.
This is our plan of paying the public debt. The Democratic
party propose to pay it differently. I do not agree with them,
as I remarked, in their proposition. They say they are in favor
of paying it within five years. They want it paid right oflF.
They say, " You are paying six per cent, interest on this great
debt all the time." That is true, on the most of it. You pay
six per cent, on about 11,600,000,000, and five per cent, on the^
balance — that is, at the rate of six per cent, on the 5-20's and
five per cent, on the 10-40's, in gold. They say that while we
are paying that interest they want to stop that interest. How
do they propose to stop that interest ? It's the easiest thing in
the world to do, the way they propose to do it. [Laughter.]
They say they want to stop this interest by issuing greenbacks
to pay off this debt, and they have a stump speech on that point
that is calculated to deceive a great many ignorant people. It
won't deceive any man of ordinary sense and information, but it
may deceive a man who is destitute of that article that is very
necessary in a country where one should understand his business
and the affairs of the nation. [Laughter and applause.]
We have now $700,000,000 of currency. Over $350,000,000 of
it is in United States Treasury notes, and the balance in National
Bank notes. They say they propose to pay off the interest of
these notes — the National Bank bonds that are deposited as col-
laterals, and all the bonds in the hands of the bondholders —
because they are mad at the bondholder. They don't like him.
They say he is a rich man and an aristocrat, and they want him
paid off; they want to lift the burdens off the shoulders of the
people. They are going to issue, besides the $700,000,000 of
currency we now have, a fresh lot.
* ^ 4: 4t 4: 4: «
Now, suppose you for a short time examine thfs question as
sensible men. Suppose we issue "greenbacks" to pay off these
bonds and stop the interest, how much do you make by that ?
562 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
They say currency is good enough for the bondholder. But
" that ain't the question." The question is. How does it affect
the people? You are the men to be considered. The money
goes into your hands. It is issued by the Government, and the
bondholder gets it for his bonds, but he pays it directly over to
you. He buys your horses, your cattle, your land, your prod-
ucts— for that is what you sell your produce for — and if there
is any loss on it, who loses it ? You are the men who lose it.
The farmers, the mechanics, the laborers, are the men who must
receive it, and they are the men in whose hands it must depreci-
ate, and they are the men who must be responsible. But if they
have not the gold and silver to pay off these $1,600,000,000 of
bonds, and liquidate them instead in greenbacks, how are you
going to pay off the greenbacks when isssed ? We have got to '
pay them in something. They issue ten or sixteen hundred mil-
lions of greenbacks to pay off all the bonds, because they haven't
the gold to-day to pay off the bonds. Then when you get the
greenbacks and come to a bank to have them redeemed, what
will you have to redeem them with ? [Applause.] You have
got no gold to do that with, and your currency will be worth
nothing. Your money will be just in the condition the rebel's
money -was, over there in Richmond, Va. He had been over
there in the rebellion, and had been making cannon for the
Confederacy. When he went there the money was first-rate.
Confederate money was good enough. He got up in the morn-
ing, put a two-dollar bill in his vest pocket, took his basket on
his arm to buy his breakfast, which he would bring home in his
basket and have it about full. He stayed there a year or so, and
he said he then had to take the basket to carry his money in,
and could almost bring his breakfast back in his vest pocket.
[Laugbter.] And you would be in that condition precisely if
you were to pay off this debt in the manner the Democracy
wants to pay it.
Let us illustrate it another way * * * * Suppose you, my
friend, are in distress ; * * * * you go to a neighbor and bor-
row money of him, and give him a note drawing ten per cent.
You give him a note ; lie has lent you his money ; you get out
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 565
of your difficulty. As soon as you are fairly out of it he wants
you to pay him, and you say " Yes ; I will pay you." How — how
are you going to pay your debt ? According to the Democratic
theory you will give him a new note, drawing no interest. That
is the doctrine ; that is it precisely. [Laughter and applause.]
In the course of this speech, also, he satirized the proposi-
tion to return to power the men whose best efforts had been
devoted to the attempt to destroy the Government of the United
States, showing the heedless folly of such a thing. He made
a scorching arraignment of the brazen effrontery of the rebel
leaders in offering their services to conduct the affairs of the
nation, which they had barely failed to ruin. He said :
If you elect Grant and Colfax you will have peace. Because,
let me tell you, that man Grant will keep peace. These rebels
know it, and that is the reason they do not want him to be Presi-
dent. [Great applause.] With Seymour and Blair you will have
revolution, in my Judgment ; with Grant and Colfax you will
have peace and prosperity, in my judgment. Now if there are
any soldiers here ["Here's one!"] I want to ask them this ques-
tion. Let me illustrate our position as soldiers, because you
know that there is a sympathy between us that hardly ever exists
between other men. It matters not how much we may differ in
pontics, we have yet a respect the one for the other, if we show
we have each done our duty in the cause of our country. That is
universally so among soldiers, if they are Democratic soldiers or
Eepublican soldiers. Suppose, for the purpose of looking at this
thing in the light of a soldier, we soldiers could have the matter
arranged according to our taste to-day. Suppose that we had a
stand built on this side of the street, and one on the opposite side
of the street. Suppose that we had Seymour — and Blair and the
Democratic Convention — on the platform on this side of the
street ; Forrest on his right. Wade Hampton on his left, Joe Wil-
liams behind him a little, and the balance of the rebels bringing
up the rear. Suppose on the other side we had Grant and Colfax,
and the six hundred and thirty men in the Chicago Convention
566 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
(three hundred of that number had served in the Union army).
Suppose we had that arrangement, and suppose we had the power
to call from their graves the three hundred thousand martyred
brothers who sleep in the far-off vale, and who died that you and
I might have protection. Suppose that we could bring all the
widows in their weeds, and the orphans, and the one-legged and
the one-armed soldiers, and we could place them in one grand
row along that street, and pass them in review between these two
conventions. I ask you, soldiers, if you could stand at one side
and see that grand review, as it marched by these two stands, how
you would be affected ? As the three hundred thousand sainted
martyrs passed by, clothed in white as spirits from above, casting
their eyes to the right and left, there would be Grant and his
three hundred soldier followers (and no rebels on his stand)
shedding tears of mourning over the ones that were left behind.
These spirits could say to them, "We died for your benefit and
for your protection." When they turned their faces toward the
stand on this side, what could they say ? " Mr. Seymour, you
said we could not save this country ; that the draft was unconsti-
tutional. You said the war was a failure ; you signed a platform
that said the further prosecution of it would lead to anarchy and
misrule — you have been nominated for the Presidency, and there
are your friends who represent your party sitting about you."
"Here is Forrest," says one, "who butchered me." Another
cries, " I am the spirit of that man who was burned by that mur-
derer Forrest, who sits there, while I was lying sick in my tent."
Another one says to Wade Hampton, " I am the man upon whose
breast was pinned a ticket that my General and friends might see
that I had been hanged while foraging in South Carolina." And
these rebels sit here and see these men as they go by, followed by
the widows, who hold up their weeds and say, "That stand
bears the man that caused me to be dressed in mourning to-day."
As the one-legged man goes by, holding up his crutch, he cries
out, " You are the man that caused me to have but one leg;" the
one-armed man w^ould shake his stump at Forrest and Hampton
and Preston, and their rebel brothers, and say, "You men are
the cause of my being a cripple for life;" and as the child came
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION, 567
along it would prattle and say, " When will my father return ?
Thou art the man that gave me not my father back, but made me
an orphan — thou art the man who murdered my parent — thou
art the man who made my mother a widow." I ask you, soldiers,
to-day, if you could stand and gaze upon a scene like that, and
then turn around and say, " I will vote for the man who sits upon
that platform with his rebels, Forrest and Hampton, and all of
them around him, who have made those three hundred thousand
dead brothers arise, and given us half a million of widows and
orphans, and crippled and wounded soldiers." ["Never!"
" Never ! "] I say there is not a soldier to-day except he has lost
his manhood, and there is not one man except he has lost his
patriotism and is lost to every sense of honor and propriety, in
this country, who could gaze upon such a scene as that and refuse
to cast his ballot for Grant and his friends who go along with
him, and head the great column of liberty and progress as we go
through this land. I ask you, men, I ask you, women and chil-
dren,— the little boys and the little girls, — to picture a lesson of
this kind in your midst, because, although you may say, " This
is one of Logan's fancies," it is not. It is true as Holy Writ.
There you can see the whole lesson. It is written upon the
graves, upon the bodies, upon the arms and legs of men in this
country, and upon the clothing of the widows and the orphans of
this whole land ; and that lesson was written there by the hands
of these men that I have mentioned, who to-day are asking you
for your suffrage and for the control of this country. I say, in the
name of Heaven, in the name of patriotism, in the name of three
hundred thousand murdered dead, and in the name of the flag
and the Constitution, and all there is that is near and dear to the
people of this great land of ours, let us never disgrace ourselves
by fighting four years to . save a country, and then turn it over
into the hands of the men who during that same fou-r years
attempted to destroy it. ["Never!" "Never!" — and intense
excitement.] But let us say, inasmuch as we have saved this
land, we will perpetuate its institutions, and will make liberty
and progress, and civilization and Christianity, our watchwords.
We will make this great country of ours what it should be, by
566
BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
(three hundred of that number had served in the Union army).
Suppose we had that arrangement, and suppose we had the power
to call from their graves the three hundred thousand martyred
brothers who sleep in the far-off vale, and who died that you and
1 might have protection. Suppose that we could bring all the
widows in their weeds, and the orphans, and the one-legged and
the one-armed soldiers, and we could place them in one grand
row along that street, and pass them in review between these two
conventions. I ask you, soldiers, if you could stand at one side
and see that grand review, as it marched by these two stands, how
you would be affected ? As the three hundred thousand sainted
martyrs passed by, clothed in white as spirits from above, casting
their eyes to the right and left, there would be Grant and his
three hundred soldier followers (and no rebels on his stand)
shedding tears of mourning over the ones that were left behind.
These spirits could say to them, "We died for your benefit and
for your protection." When they turned their faces toward the
stand on this side, what could they say ? " Mr. Seymour, you
said we could not save this country ; that the draft was unconsti-
tutional. You said the war was a failure ; you signed a platform
that said the further prosecution of it would lead to anarchy and
misrule — you have been nominated for the Presidency, and there
are your friends who represent your party sitting about you."
"Here is Forrest," says one, "Avho butchered me." Another
cries, " I am the spirit of that man who was burned by that mur-
derer Forrest, who sits there, while I was lying sick in my tent."
Another one says to Wade Hampton, " I am the man upon whose
breast was pinned a ticket that my General and friends might see
that I had been hanged while foraging in South Carolina." And
these rebels sit here and see these men as they go by, followed by
the widows, who hold up their vreeds and say, "That stand
bears the man that caused me to be dressed in mourning to-day."
As the one-legged man goes by, holding up his crutch, he cries
out, "You are the man that caused me to have but one leg;" the
one-armed man would shake his stump at Forrest and Hampton
and Preston, and their rebel brothers, and say, "You men are
the cause of my being a cripple for life;" and as the child came
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THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION,
567
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along it would prattle and say, " When will my father return ?
Thou art the man that gave me not my father back, but made me
an orphan — thou art the man wlio murdered my parent — thou
art the man who made my mother a widow." I ask you, soldiers,
to-day, if you could stand and gaze upon a scene like that, and
tlien turn around and say, " I will vote for the man who sits upon
that platform with his rebels, Forrest and Hampton, and all of
them around him, who have made those three hundred thousand
dead brothers arise, and given us half a million of widows and
orphans, and crippled and wounded soldiers." ["Never!"
'^' Never ! "] I say there is not a soldier to-day except he has lost
his manhood, and there is not one man except he has lost his
patriotism and is lost to every sense of honor and propriety, in
this country, who could gaze upon such a scene as that and refuse
to cast his ballot for Grant and his friends who go along with
him, and head the great column of liberty and progress as we go
through this land. I ask you, men, I ask you, women and chil-
dren,^— the little boys and the little girls, — to picture a lesson of
this kind in your midst, because, although you may say, " This
is one of Logan's fancies," it is not. It is true as Holy Writ.
There you can see the whole lesson. It is written upon the
graves, upon the bodies, upon the arms and legs of men in this
country, and upon the clothing of the widows and the orphans of
this whole land ; and that lesson was written there by the hands
of these men that I have mentioned, who to-day are asking you
for your suffrage and for the control of this country. I say, in the
name of Heaven, in the name of patriotism, in the name of three
hundred thousand murdered dead, and in the name of the flag
and the Constitution, and all there is that is near and dear to the
people of this great land of ours, let us never disgrace ourselves
by fighting four years to. save a country, and then turn it over
into the hands of the men who during that same fou-r years
attempted to destroy it. ["Never!" "Never!" — and intense
excitement.] But let us say, inasmuch as we have saved this
land, we will perpetuate its institutions, and will make liberty
and progress, and civilization and Christianity, our watchwords.
We will make this great country of ours what it should be, by
l-HE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 571
Senate for a grant of lands to the Denver Pacific Railway and
Telegraph Company. He urged that the Government had
already sufficiently subsidized this railroad, both in lands and
money, and that it was not necessary to the advancement of
the public interests that additional aid to the extent of $16,000
a mile should be given. He argued that the company was
able to complete its enterprise without this assistance, and
that the subsidy and grant by Congress had already been
extravagant.
In the course of his remarks Greneral Logan said :
Now, sir, I say that I am in favor of the great march of im-
provement, of civilization, and a general development of all the
wealth and resources of this country. But, sir, that is no reason
why, as a Eepresentative of my constituents, I should stand by
and see the Treasury every day growing leaner and leaner by the
inroads made upon it by these railroads and other corporations.
I am not willing to do it. I say to my friends in this House ; I
say to my Eepublican friends — though I do not regard this as a
political measure by any means — that we pledged ourselves to our
constituents in the Convention that nominated our President-
elect, that economy should be our watchword. If we are true to
the men that elected us we shall stand by that pledge to-day.
What are we now asked by this corporation to do ? We are asked
to vote $16,000 a mile, against reason and against the will of our
constituents, and against the declaration — not express but clearly
implied — of the Convention that nominated our candidate for
President. We are asked to support this bill, which is in oppo-
sition to the policy regarded as proper, expressed, as I understand,
by the President-elect, his declaration having been made — not
with reference to this particular bill, but generally with reference
to subsidies of the character heretofore given to railroads — that
it is unwise, at least in the present embarrassed condition of the
Treasury. But this company comes modestly forward and says,
" Subsidize for us these fifty-four miles of road ; slap your con-
stituents in the face ; violate your party platform ; violate your
pledges made upon the stump ; and on the eve of the new admin-
672 BlOGEAPflT 01* GUN. JOflN A. LOfiAlJ.
istration coming into power make a direct issue with it on the
question of involving us in further liability. Let him understand
that you are all-powerful, that you ask no odds from him. Give
the people of the country to understand that you defy their will
in totor This, and nothing less, is what we are modestly asked
by this company to do.
The speech killed the bill.
The records of the proceedings upon the Fifteenth Amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States, in February,
1869, show that General Logan's draft of the section was
adopted. The Amendment coming from the Senate read, " the
right of the citizens of the United States to vote or hold office,
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any
State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servi-
tude." Mr. Logan offered an amendment to strike out the
words "or hold office." The House rejected this amendment,
but agreed to one offered by Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, which
inserted after the word "color," the words "nativity, property,
creed." The Senate disagreed to this, however, and a confer-
ence, composed of Senators Stewart, Conkling and Edmunds,
and Messrs. Boutwell, Bingham and Logan, from the House,
was appointed to settle the question. They adopted Logan's
proposition, and reported unanimously the clause as it stands
to-day in the organic instrument of the United States, which
was passed by the requisite two-thirds majority of both houses.
In January, 1870, General Logan, as Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Military Affairs, reported and secured the passage
by the House of his bill for the reduction of the army, and the
mustering out of some five hundred officers.
It is needless to say that the powerful lobby which assumes
control in Washington of all measures affecting army and
navy affairs, was out in full force, plying its trade with its
usual effi-ontery. General Logan, however, showed the pemi-
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 573
cious waste of public money which was going on, as well as
the corrupting influence which was at work, through the hold-
ing of civil positions by officers of the army, who could escape
the penalty for malfeasance by retiring under the cloak of their
military commissions. He showed that the staff corps for our
30,000 men was as numerous as that of France, for her half
million, or Russia for her 800,000. He proceeded to review
the condition of affairs. General Sherman, Secretary Robeson
and others being upon the floor of the House, and using their
influence to defeat the measure. It was adopted, effecting, as
General Logan estimated, a saving annually of about three
million dollars.
Some three months later, General Logan, having called
attention to and placed upon the records, a letter written by
General Sherman to Senator Wilson, Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Military Affairs, attacking this bill for the reduc-
tion of the army, which had passed the House, and was then
being considered by Wilson's Committee, made a speech, dis-
closing a thoroughness of knowledge of military administration
which commanded the respect of even the regular army officers,
although coming from a man who was only a distinguished
volunteer. General Sherman's argument against Logan's
measure was riddled, and shown to be so thoroughly specious,
that it fell flat, and failed in its purpose of defeating the bill
for the reduction and reform of the army.
The galleries were filled to suffocation while Logan made
his speech, and the audience had frequently to be checked in
its tumultuous expressions of approval. In the conclusion of
his scathing argument. General Logan said :
General Sherman says that if his pay be reduced he cannot give
receptions. I do not care whether he can or not. It makes no
difference to me. Sir, I remember a grand reception which was
once given to him. I remember that on the 23d of May, 1865,
574 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
I marched around this Capitol and down Pennsylvania Avenue at
the head of many thousand veteran soldiers, constituting the
Army of the Tennessee. General Sherman was marching in ad-
vance. He then commanded General Slocum's army, the Army
of Georgia, and my army, the Army of the Tennessee. He was
greeted with cheers by men and women, by white and black.
Bouquets were strewn everywhere. Every heart leaped with joy ;
and if the dead could have spoken, they would have shouted
hallelujahs to his name.
Nearly all of those soldiers who followed me down Pennsyl-
vania Avenue were volunteer soldiers. They had been engaged
in more than a hundred battles. They constituted the old Army
of the Tennessee, which was first commanded by Grant, and
which I commanded last. They never knew defeat. They are
forgotten to-day. Their memories live but a short time. Fifty
years hence, history will hardly know that these men were engaged
in the war. A few regular officers will claim all the credit, and will
get it all. I am willing they shall have it. I want none, myself ;
I claim none. But while this officer, the General of the regular
army, is attacking us, there are in this House a great many men
who were volunteer soldiers — perhaps not so great as he, but
equally patriotic. They were mustered out of the service. They
are content to obey the laws and do their duty.
There sits a man [Mr. Paine] who, with one leg gone, slept
upon the field, hearing during the dark, dismal night, no sound
save the groans of the wounded and the dying. He votes for this
bill, and for that reason he is an "inhuman" man. Another
gentleman [Mr. Stoughton], a member of our Committee, who
concurred in reporting this bill, slept upon the battle-field in the
same way, and now goes around this House on a wooden leg. I
could name twenty men on this floor who bear the marks and
scars of rebel lead. They are to be forgotten. Let it be so ; I
have nothing to say ; but I have a word to say in behalf of the
taxpayers, in behalf of the soldier, and the soldier's widow. In
their name, in the name of those brave Union men who sleep be-
neath the sod of the South, in the name of their widows and
children, in the name of the one-legged and one-armed soldiers,
THE PEKIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 577
I protest against the use of such power in the hands of these few
men to defeat a great measure of public reform like this army bill.
I protest against this thing of dictating legislation to the coun-
try because a man is in a high place. I protest against any at-
tempt to stifle legislation. I protest against the iron bands of
power being woven like a net-work around the minds of indepen-
dent legislators of this Nation. The people demand that the
legislative branch of this Government shall be free, shall be un-
trammeled, shall be independent, and shall be unfettered, so far
as military dictation is concerned ; and I say to the men who hold
high positions in this country, that they are not the law-makers,
but the law-obeyers, and that they shall not dictate the amount
of taxation to be paid for their benefit or the benefit of anybody
else. And, sir, whenever legislation is so stifled and so crippled
that a man who has independence enough to stand up here in
defense of economy and efficiency in the public service is attacked
by high officials through the columns of the newspapers for the
performance of his duty as a Eepresentative of the people, and
legislation thwarted thereby, then farewell to the liberties of this
glorious Republic.
General Sherman parades, as if for our imitation, the British
army, with four hundred generals. If we should adopt the
suggestion and have four hundred generals, as in the British
army, to one hundred thousand men, then, Mr. Speaker, we
should give the death-knell to our free institutions. With such
a military establishment the oriental world to-day has been
blighted and accursed. It bears upon the people the heavy
burden of a titled nobility. I demand that the people of this
country shall not receive any such stain. I demand that this
country shall not be put in the same position they are in Europe.
If a man in Europe gets to be a general he must be a duke, and,
if he gets to be a colonel he must be a marquis ; and while the
people get two shillings a day for hard labor the duke or marquis
]nust get $30,000 per annum for doing nothing. Such is the rule
and such is the condition of things in Europe. I wish to know
whether this attack on me means that this country shall be sub-
yerted into the hands of powerful military meii who are to be-
578 BIOGKAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
come aristocrats as they are in Europe ? I wish to know whether
titles are to be established here ? I wish to know whether a body
of nobility is to grow up here ?
I know the people are honest, as we have been told in that
letter. Yes, sir, the people are honest, the people are brave, and
the people are true. He would not have been a General if it had not
been for the people. It was the boy who carried the musket who
made him what he is. The boys who carried muskets so gal-
lantly during the late war made all these men who now hold
themselves so high. They are the boys who made generals and
presidents and can unmake them; and I say, for one, I shall
stand up here as the defender of these boys and these men, of
their widows and their orphans, and for the liberties of all the
people in this country, against all generals, or marshals, or
governors, or princes, or potentates, regardless of whatever aris-
tocracy may be attempted to be set up in this land. While I live
I will stand as their defender. Living or dying, I shall defend
the liberties of this people, making war against dictation and
against aristocracy and in favor of republicanism.
After a desperate struggle, General Logan had the satisfac-
tion of seeing his bill become a law late in the session.
During the agitation of the proposition to remove the Cap-
ital from Washington to the Mississippi Valley, in 1870, Gen-
eral Logan made a speech advocating the measure. He claimed
that that was the time to take the step, ard that a more favor-
able opportunity would never occur. The Government had
been remodeled on the basis of freedom, and was about to enter
upon a new era of greatness and prosperity. It was appropriate
that the Capital of the nation should be in its center, and if
this was ever to be brought about, the beginning of the new
epoch was the appropriate season for its accomplishment.
In the debate upon the readmission of Virginia into the
Union, he made a speech, the close of which was characterized
by the press of the day as one of the most admirable piecea of
gpontaneous eloquence Qf the ^essioft; Uq m^, I
THE PEEIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 579
"I am in favor of the admission of the State at the earliest
practicable moment, so as to get these vexed questions that have
been before Congress and before the Union for years past out of
the way ; that all this strife may pass away from the halls of
Congress ; that all the States may again take their positions in
the family of States ; that they again may bow to the old flag of
the Union ; that they again may turn their eyes up to the shin-
ing stars and there receive the light that the fathers of the
country received, and that they transmitted to the generations to
come after them. I am for it, that the gloom that hangs around
this country and the dark cloud that has hovered over us so long
may pass away, and the light of heaven serenely shine once more
upon the Eepubhc of America.
During that session he secured the expulsion from the
House of Whittemore, a Kepresentative of South Carolina,
convicted of selling appointments to West Point and Annap-
olis, the charge having been investigated by General Logan's
Committee on Military Affairs. Logan carried his point after
a fierce set-to on the floor of the House with Butler, of Mas-
sachusetts.
The Cuban revolution had been under way for some time.
In 1870 the proposition was mooted to acknowledge the inde-
pendence of the island. February 17, General Logan offered
a resolution in Congress to recognize the belligerents.
The affairs of the Queen of the Antilles excited then, as
they always must, a great deal of interest in the United
States ; lying within the shadow of our shores, the key to the
Gulf of Mexico, and by the natural laws of trade a commercial
dependence of this country. The American people naturally
sympathized with the struggles of the islanders for freedom.
General Logan, in addressing the House on this subject, said :
The question as to whether this Government shall or shall not
record to the Cuban pawjots belligerent rights is one of grave
jiTiportance, Oii the oue hand it inyolves the great principles
580 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
of freedom and right of self-government ; on the other, important
national principles and nice distinctions of international law.
Therefore I hesitated on account of the somewhat meager details
and conflicting reports we have received in regard to the contest
which has been going on in the island of Cuba ; but this uncer-
tainty, I think, now no longer exists, as I expect to show in the
course of these remarks. Another reason why I hesitated was
that this action places me in apparent opposition to that admin-
istration which I heartily support and with which I am in full
sympathy.
But, sir, I do not feel that I can discharge my duty and remain
silent. If I should err, I have the satisfaction of knowing that
it is better to err in behalf of liberty, than against it ; and if
there is any doubt in the minds of members on this subject,
surely the benefit of that doubt should be cast in favor of free-
dom and the right of self-government. Let our various views
as to policy be what they may, I think I can safely assert that
all feel the deep current of opinion pressing upon us. Though
smothered to comparative silence, we feel it like the hot breath
of the slumbering volcano which precedes the rending upheaval ;
we know it is there. Though the tongue of the Nation is com-
paratively mute on this subject, yet the mighty heart palpitates
with sympathy for the struggling patriots of the Queen of the
Antilles, and we feel the beating strokes. Even the voices of
those who tell us to wait, bear in their tones an indication that
behind the words lie deep fountains of sympathy anxious to gush
forth in words of cheer.
Passing over some things which should come in, in chrono-
logical order, we will take up the debate upon the Cuban ques-
tion which was resumed again some three months later, when
General Logan spoke a second time in support of his resolu-
tion. A few passages from that speech will not be without
interest, now that the condition of down-trodden Cuba is again
particularly awakening the attention of the people of the
United States, He sai4 l
iw; ''"""
THE PEKIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. 583
I tell that gentleman [Mr. Butler] to-day that I have in my hand
a copy of their constitution, and it is, as General Banks says, as
good a constitution in some respects as that under which we live.
The twenty-fourth article of that constitution is in these words :
"All the inhabitants of the republic of Cuba are absolutely
free."
It is a constitution at war with slavery and despotism, and in
favor of freedom. You talk to me about my sympathies. I tell
you I am in favor of this struggling people — in favor of liberty,
and opposed to monarchy and slavery everywhere. And all of
us should be the same, if we were as we were a few months ago.
A vote to-day for the independence or for the recognition of the
fact that there is war in Cuba is a vote for freedom against
slavery, a vote in favor of republican principles and republican
institutions, and against monarchy and oppression. That is one
of the questions which is to-day before us and the American
people. * * * But it is said they hold no seaport, and if you
undertake to go to see them, to make them a visit, you must go
through the Spanish lines. How strange that is ! Does the
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] remember that a few
years ago, when he and I were on the same side of a similar
question. President Juarez, of Mexico, was up in the mountains
of Chihuahua with only twenty pack-mules, carrying the govern-
ment of Mexico in his hat, while Maximilian held the country
with more than forty thousand men ? * * * * *
You say, again, that the Cubans have no seaport and collect no
revenues. Let me apply to your argument your own logic. How
many seaports had the Southern Confederacy in 1863 and 18G4?
Where did they have one not guarded by us ? We blockaded
them everywhere along the immense line of coast. They had no
ports anywhere that they could control so as to collect revenues
from imports. Still, they were recognized as a power by every
nation on earth, I believe, except our own, and, although we
conquered and crushed them, we nevertheless recognized them
as having the rights of belligerents.
As I have said, the question, then, is this : If there is war in
Cuba between the people there termed insurgents and the mon-
584 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
archy of Spain, it is our duty to side with the one or the other,
and the question is now for us to decide which. But Spain is a
government, says the gentleman. We must recognize it, furnish
it with gunboats, with powder and munitions of war to be used
against the Cubans. Yes, Spain is a government, so called, and
the woman who was at its head a short time ago has been driven
from her throne, and is now a wanderer upon the face of the
earth, not permitted to return to her home. Yet to-day that
government is a monarchy controlled by a " ring " comprised of
Prim and others. And while it stands forth jDatent before the
world that this so-called government of Prim is nothing more
nor less than a struggling anarchy within itself, scarcely knowing
from one day to another who is at its head or who is its ruler,
you recognize it with all its oppressions ; you must aid that old,
broken-down, effete ghost of a government to oppress and con-
quer these brave people who are pouring out their blood and
treasure in behalf of liberty and independence.
The speaker continued to make an appeal for the cause of
liberty, whose eloquence would well pay perusal entire. He
succeeded in defeating the machinations of a ring of Cuban
bondholders who were plotting to secure a title to the island
for themselves.
A meeting was held on the 6th of April, 1870, at the
Masonic Hall in Washington, in memory of the late General
George H. Thomas. General Logan delivered an oration
before the Department of the Potomac of the Grand Army of
the Kepublic, upon the life and character of the " Rock of
Chickamauga." General Schenck, chairman of the House
Committee on Ways and Means, presided, while members of
the Cabinet, Senators, Representatives, and several Governors
of States were present.
The hall was crowded with an enthusiastic audience, that
had been attracted by imusual interest, owing to the intimate
relations which had existed between General Thomas and his
THE PERIOD OF RECONSTKUCTION. 585
eulogist. The address was a masterly effort. Under the
circumstances, that portion of it which relates to the battle
of Nashville is most interesting. We give an extract below
showing the unstinted praise which the speaker bestowed
upon Thomas, which but for his own magnanimity, he would
never have had an opportunity to win.
When the army swung loose from its moorings at Atlanta, to
sweep across the plains of Georgia, the troops left behind were
placed under command of General Thomas to hold the enemy
in check in Tennessee. And here, in some respects, was perhaps
the most trying position of his life. Gradually falling back on
Nashville to prevent the enemy from cutting off his communica-
tions, concentrating his forces and strengthening his cavalry
arm, his delay and apparent inaction were misunderstood and
his motives misinterpreted. The news of Hood's rapid and per-
sistent advance into Tennessee, and apparently no strong effort
on the part of Thomas to check him, was a riddle for a time,
even at the headquarters of the army. Sensitive to every insinu-
ation against his honor or his integrity, as one of his nature
must ever be, it required all his self-control to keep his own
counsel. But he was equal to the task, and moving steadily
onward, perfecting his plans, he awaited patiently the moment
at which to strike the decisive blow. When it arrived, it came
like a thunderbolt upon the enemy.
Hood's army, shattered and broken, was scattered, to the four
winds, never to be again reorganized.
This cleared away effectually the cloud which for a moment
had obscured his fame, and his star shone forth with increased
splendor.
At the National encampment of the Grand Army of the
Kepublic, held at Washington in 1870, General Logan was
elected unanimously for the third time as Commander-in-
Chief
General Logan was again re-nominated for Congress from
586 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
the State at large by acclamation in 1870, and made a vigorous
canvass that fall, speaking in all the large cities and towns
of the State. He found time also to make a tour across the
State of Iowa, where he received a continuous ovation from
the old soldiers of the Western Army, and the people, among
whom his name had become a watchword. The press of
Illinois began to urge his election as United States Senator,
to succeed Kichard Yates, whose term would expire on the 4th
of March, 1871. The country very generally took an interest
in the contest, the New York 8un observing that he had
attained a very distinguished position in the House of
Eepresentatives, being a man of great vigor and originality
of mind. His course upon the Cuban question, the Sun main-
tained, had been such as to render him a great favorite with
all the friends of universal freedom.
Soon after the opening of the 2d session of the 42d
Congress, General Logan offered in the House a bill to
abolish the offices of Admiral and Vice- Admiral of the Navy.
This, General Logan declared, was only in pursuance of a
policy of economy and propriety which he had followed with
reference to the reduction of the army. The bill met vigor-
ous opposition, as a matter of course, but was passed almost
unanimously by the House.
When the Legislature met that winter for the election
of United States Senator to succeed Yates, General Logan
was the successful candidate. When the caucus of Kepub-
lican members met, it was found that he had fully three-
fourths of the votes of his party. He therefore received the
nomination and election in due time. With this promotion,
he began another era in his public career, which has been
no less successful and marked than had been his achieve-
ments as a soldier, or his vigorous course in the lower branch
of Congress.
CHAPTER VIII
LOGAN IN THE SENATE.
General Logfan's peculiar relations as United States Senator. — A constituency
coextensive with the country. — A touching incident in Senatorial life. —
The Senator at home — His description of the Chicago fire. — His reply to
Sumner's attack on President Grant. — He secures legislation prohibiting
the sale of fire-arms to the Indians. — On the stump in 1874. — His tilt with
the rebel brigadiers in 1876. — He silences Gordon. — Defeats the bill to
transfer the control of Indian affairs to the army. — Discussed by press
and people for the Presidency. — Declines to allow the opposition to Mr.
Blaine to combine on him at the Cincinnati Convention. — His interest in
the Arrearage of Pensions and the Equalization of Bounties Bills. —
His support of the Resumption Act. — Speech on finance at Van Wert,
Ohio.— Re-elected to the United States Senate. — His opposition to the
revolutionary methods of the Democrats in the Forty -sixth Contrreas. —
The Army Bill and the pay of United States Marshals.— The attitude of
the Republican party on the Southern question as outlined by Logan. —
He is challenged to fight a duel. — His dignified course in this emer-
gency.— His good sense meets public approval. — His speech on the
Marshals' Bill. — Again in the front of the political battle. — His argu-
ment for the Five Per Cent. Land Claims of the States. — His opposition
to the Fitz-John Porter Bill. — A four days' argument causes the abandon-
ment of the measure.— Talked of for President in 1880.— He declares him-
self to be unqualifiedly for General Grant. — His work in the preliminary
canvass. — Declares that the " Stalwarts " must abide by the result of the
Convention. — An episode of the great Convention. — How near "Dick"
Oglesby came to being President. — In the van for Garfield and Arthur. —
His efforts to have General Grant placed on the retired list of the army. —
Defends the pensioners of the war in 1883. — His bill to devote the In-
ternal Revenue taxes to educational purposes. — His speech in advocacy of
the measure. — His second argument in opposition to the restoration of
Fitz-John Porter. — Assailed as an Indian land-grabber. — He demolishes
the accusation, and places the refutation on the records of the Senate.
AS a Senator, General Logan has occupied a unique
--lTA- position in Washington. His constituency has not
been confined to Illinois, but has been practically coextensive
with the Union. This condition of things has arisen from a,
590 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
variety of causes. He is personally known to more people,
perhaps, than any other public man in Washington, from his
long political career and his army service. Again, he was
known to always have an ear open to others' woes and a kind
heart, and did not retire behind the forbidding ramparts of a
grand residence, but lived at an unpretentious boarding-house,
where he was always easy of access. In the third place, he
came to be recognized as the special friend of the soldier, and
it seldom happened that an old veteran went to the capital on
business with any department of the Government, who did
not make his way at once to General Logan for assistance and
advice.
In this way the Senator's years have been spent in patient
toil, with a succession of duties of kindness in the morning,
followed by committee meetings and the daily session, suc-
ceeded in turn by the study of some pending matter, or a
stream of callers till far into the night. His daily mail, year by
year, has not been exceeded in bulk and variety by that of a
cabinet officer. From the fact that Mrs. Logan has for years
shared in the duties involved in this immense correspondence,
owing to the fact that the General has not been able to employ
clerks enough to do the work, originated the report that this
gifted lady wrote her husband's speeches. Nothing could be
further from the fact. No one but the Senator himself ever
wrote a speech for him, and usually he has written none for
himself. It is not his habit of work. As a rule, he prepares
himself on the legal points and the facts of a question, taking
notes like a lawyer. Then, when he is ready, he delivers his
argument without manuscript before him, with an ease that
astonishes those of his colleagues less gifted or experienced in
this particular.
A single incident of his life in Washington, as Senator, wiU
serve to illustrate thousands.
tOGAN IN THE SENATE. 59l
A gentleman, who had called on business to see the Senator
and was an eye-witness of the incident, told the story to the
writer.
A card, soiled and bearing a badly written name in pencil,
was brought in and handed to the General. He looked it over,
and could scarcely make it out. Not being able to recall the
person, he gave it to Mrs. Logan, saying : " Mother, who is
this ? I don't remember any one of this name."
Mrs. Logan took the blurred bit of card-board, and looking
at it a moment, said cheerily : " I guess I'll go and see.
General ; it may be some poor man who wants to see you."
She went out, and in a few moments was heard coming
back, while a stumping on the stairs showed that she was ac-
companied by an old veteran. They came in, and the General
asked : " Well, what can I do for you ? "
His visitor was a man past middle life, poorly clad, and
buckled to his knee was an old-fashioned wooden leg.
" I don't know. General," he replied, with some hesitation.
" You don't know me. I came to Washington a month ago
to see about my pension. I live in Pennsylvania. Mr.
is my Congressman, but he don't seem to be able to help me
any. I was wounded badly. The ball passed through my leg
just below the knee, not breaking the bone, so it was not
amputated. It troubled me for sixteen years, till I finally
had to have it taken off, as you see. I can't do much, and
have only been getting four dollars a month pension. I think
I ought to have a full pension for the loss of the limb, but
they say I can't get it because my leg was not amputated un-
til so long afterwards, although the wound really necessitated
it. They told me finally to go and see General Logan, that
he was the old soldiers' friend, so I have come. General, to
ask if you won't go to see the Commissioner of Pensions with
me."
/
592 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
" Yes/' replied the Senator ; " be here at nine o'clock to-mor-
row morning, and I will go to the Pension Office with you.
There ought to be a ruling made to fit your case."
The veteran was overcome with gratitude and about to
depart, when Mrs. Logan said : " Mr. , you don't look
well. Are you in need of anything .? "
The soldier stopped, and said: "Well, to tell you the
truth, madam, I feel weak because I have not eaten anything
to-day. I have not been willing to give up, and leave with-
out my pension, and I paid all I had yesterday for my lodging
for two days more."
By this time General Logan was nervously fumbling in his
vest pockets, and presently drew out a dollar, which he handed
to the man, telling him in a husky voice to go and get some
supper, and not to forget nine o'clock the next morning. His
visitor took the money and went out crying like a child. The
next day General Logan secured the man his pension. For
fifteen years the Senator's life has been one round of scenes
like this.
In January, 1872, when the proposition to extend national
relief to Chicago, which early in the previous October had
been destroyed by the memorable conflagration, was before
Congress, Senator Logan delivered a speech in urgent support
of the measure which embraces one of the most graphic de-
scriptions of that indescribable calamity to be found in print.
After detailing the circumstances of all the great fires known
in history he turned to Chicago, and said :
Here a storm of fire, as if bursting from the heavens, which
for fourteen weeks had been like brass above our heads, began
its work in the southern and western portions of our city, and
spreading out its arms of flame to the breadth of a mile and a
half, swept east and northward for three miles and a half, de-
vouring everything in its pathway. Its fury, fed by the hurri-
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 595
cane which commenced blowing about this time, as if to lend a
hand in the work of destruction, caused the sea of fire to roll on
with an impetuosity that no human power could withstand.
Engines and all their accompanying appliances were of no more
avail than human effort would be to stay the waves of the
mighty ocean. The flames, as though amused at the efforts,
would sweep through the buildings around them and shoot out
their red banners from the windows and roofs behind them as
tokens of victory. Leaping from house to house, and often
with mighty strides vaulting over an entire block as avant-
couriers of the host which followed behind, the very flames, as if
conscious, seemed to revel in their work of devastation and
ruin. The imagination of the superstitious at that time needed
but slight impulse to look upon them as fiery demons sent upon
us as a scourge. But while often passing by holes and sinks of
iniquity, they swept with exultation along the sacred aisles of the
churches, coiling like huge red serpents around the ascending
spires, shooting out their fiery tongues from the summit. Now
a tall spire of flame would shoot up with a vivid glow from some
lofty edifice, quivering for a moment in the rising whirlpool,
then, sweeping down before a fresh blast of wind, it would dash
with wild fury against another building, apparently consuming
it at one stroke.
The fierce hurricane drew the fiery billows through the narrow
alleys with a shrill, unearthly screech, dashing into every open-
ing, like an invisible incendiary, its brands kindling each into
a blaze with unerring certainty. The sheets of flame, as they
burst forth from the windows, eaves, and roofs, leaping upward
through the heavy masses of smoke, literally flapped and cracked
in the wind like the sails of vessels in a storm.
Mr. President, it was a deeply interesting yet melancholy sight
to behold the magnificent stone and marble structures bravely
resisting the fiery assaults which were made upon them. The
flames gathered around them to the front and the rear, to the
right and left, yet they stood up majestically as if defying the
enemy, their walls rosy and their numerous windows bright with
the reflected glare, But the red surging waves, as if maddened
596 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
by the resistance they met, rushed to the attack with redoubled
fury, and soon fiery banners hung out from e¥ery aperture, and
twisted cohimns of smoke ascended from all parts. The giants
were conquered, and reeling and tumbling before the fell de-
stroyer, soon lay but masses of blackened smoldering ruins,
silent and melancholy monuments of the former greatness of the
"Prairie Queen of the West."
The sun descended behind the huge clouds of smoke like a
burning globe, and rose again, and still the rolling sea of flame
rushed onward unchecked. The tempest tore huge fragments
from the roofs and swept them like floating islands of fire
through the sky, and the distant quarters where they fell were
instantly wrapped in flame. The very stones were often cal-
cined or split into fragments by the intense heat; the metallic
roofs and coverings were rolled together like scrolls of parch-
ment ; iron, glass, and metallic substances were in many in-
stances melted as though they had been submitted to the flames
produced by some stupendous blow-pipe.
It would be in vain, Mr. President, for me to attempt to de-
scribe the wild confusion and despair of the terror-stricken in-
habitants. I have been amid the battle-roar where armies a
hundred thousand strong were struggling in fierce conflict for
victory; where the smoke of the combat rose in heavy clouds
above us ; where the dead and dying lay thick on every side ;
but never yet have I beheld such a scene of despair and wild
confusion as this ; and may God grant that I shall never see the
like again ! The people were mad with fright. Wherever there
appeared to be a place of safety, thither they rushed in hun-
dreds and thousands to escape the death which threatened them
on every side. Seized with a wild panic, immense crowds surged
backward and forward in the streets, struggling, threatening,
and imploring to get free and escape to the van. Here one,
frenzied with despair, as often as snatched from the flames would
rush elsewhere into the burning caldron ; there another, seeing
all he possessed on earth reduced to ashes, would sink down in
hopeless despair. At other points hundreds could be seen rush-
|ng to the lake shore, eyery othey |*ftreat having he^v, cut o% a^c[,
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 597
even here, pressed by the heat, smoke, and showers of firebrands,
they plunged into the water as the only hope of escape.
To attempt to paint the scene in all its true and horrible colors
would be in vain ; all was confusion, tumult, and wild despair.
Chicago was in ruins. Twenty-six hundred acres of ashes marked
the site of its former greatness ; twenty thousand houses were
reduced to embers ; one hundred and ten thousand people were
rendered homeless; $200,000,000 worth of property had served
as food for the flames.
Behold the spectacle ! Can any one, having witnessed this sad
scene, do less than plead for the ruined city ?
In May, 1872, Senator Sumner made his famous attack
upon President Grant, aiming to defeat the latter's re-nomi-
nation. Few events in the political history of the past twenty
years have been in a greater degree the subject of discussion
than this. Much has been written and said in explanation of
the course of the Massachusetts Senator ; but the most simple
reason for Mr. Sumner's attitude is probably the best. He
simply did not like General Grant, and never did, except as a
soldier. The men were radically different. Sumner was one
of those who maintained that a genius of a different order was
necessary in a statesman from that which made a great cap-
tain. He was a firm believer in the scholastic politician, and
he could not comprehend the grand simplicity of a man like
Grant, who, though endowed with a wonderful fund of knowl-
edge in affairs of statecraft, was so unpretentious as to cut a
sorry figure when brought into comparison with the collegians
whom Mr. Sumner regarded as embodying the prerequisite
accomplishments for an incumbent of the White House. Add
to this, an intolerance of opposition and a dogmatism of
opinion which submitted to no question, and we have a cast
of character which naturally found vent in the unwarranted
^m^\t i^pon tl)^ Pre^ideiitj lio^m^ then oae of the ^oungey
598 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Senators in point of service, sprang eloquently to the defense
of his old commander, in a speech, which for fire and cogency
has rarely been equaled in the presence of that august body.
He awakened a sentiment which swept over the country with
irresistible force, when he said :
* * * * If he [Sumner] was the architect and builder of the
Eepublican party, he is a great master-workman — its dome so
beautifully rounded, its columns so admirably chiseled, and all
its parts so admirably prepared, and builded together so smoothly
and so perfectly that the mechanism charms the eye of every one
who has ever seen it ! Since the Senator has performed such a
great work, I appeal to him to know why it is that he attempts
to destroy the workmanship of his own hands ? But let me give
him one word of advice. While he may think, Samson-like,
that he has the strength to carry off the gates and the pillars of
the temple, let me tell him when he stretches forth his arm to
cause the pillars to reel and totter beneath this fabric, there are
thousands and thousands of true-hearted Republicans who will
come up to the work, and, stretching forth their strong right
arms, say, " Stay thou there ; these pillars stand beneath this
mighty fabric of ours, within which we all dwell ; it is the ark
of our safety and shall not be destroyed." [Manifestations of
applause in the galleries.]
*******
I say to the Senator from Massachusetts, that while he has
struck this blow, as he believes a heavy one, on the head of the
political prospects of General Grant, he has made him friends by
the thousand, strong ones too, that were merely lukewarm yes-
terday. He has aroused the spirit of this land, that cannot be
quelled. He has in fact inflamed the old war spirit in the soldiery
of the country. He has aroused the feeling of indignation in
every man that warmed his feet by a camp-fire during the war.
He has sent through this land a thrill which will return to him
in such a manner and with such force as will make him feel it.
For myself J I will say that I hav§ sat quietly here for months^ an4
MONUMENT ERECTED WHERE GRANT AND PEMBERTON MET TO ARRANGE
THE CAPITULATION OF VICKSBURG.
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 601
had not intended to say anything : I had no argument to make,
intending to await the nomination of the Philadelphia ConA^en-
tion, be it Grant or be it whom it might, believing, however, it
would be Grant ; but when I heard these vile slanders hurled like
javelins against the President of the United States, it aroused a
feeling in my breast which has been aroused many times before.
I am now ready to buckle on my armor and am ready for the
fray, and from now until November next to fight this battle in
behalf of an honest man, a good soldier, and a faithful servant.
[Applause in the galleries.]
The Presiding Officer — The galleries must preserve order.
Mr. Logan — And I tell the Senator from Massachusetts, that
if the voice of patriots was loud enough to reach the tombs of the
dead and sainted heroes who now lie fattening Southern soil, their
voices would be heard repudiating in solemn sounds the slanders
which have been poured out against their chieftain and the pat-
riot warrior of this country. You will hear a response to this
everywhere. As I said the other day, it will be heard from one
end of this land to the other. The lines of blue-coats that were
arrayed upon the hill-tops and along the valleys, with burnished
bayonets ready for the fight, the same men, although they have
divested themselves of their battle-array, yet retain their warlike
spirit burning in their bosoms. They will respond to this chal-
lenge ; they will say to the eloquent Senator from Massachusetts,
*'You have thrown down the glove and we will take it up." I
tell the Senator he will find a response in his own State that will
not give his slumberings much quiet. He will find a response
everywhere. The people of this country will not see a man sacri-
ficed to vile calumny.
In 1873, Senator Logan secured legislation prohibiting the
sale of guns or ammunition to the Indians, declaring that the
practice of supplying the savages with fi[re-arms by the traders
was the prime cause of our disastrous frontier wars, resulting
in the butchery of settlers at periodic outbreaks of hostilities.
That year he delivered the oration before the Army of the
Tennessee, at the annual meeting of the Society, at Toledo,
602 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
giving a masterly review of the history and exploits of the or-
ganization in the field.
In 1874 he did yeoman service on the stump, as usual, in
Illinois and other States. On the Fourth of July he made a
departure from the ordinary political speech with a grand
oration at Clinton, 111., taking for his topic " Liberty and
Equality." It was a scholarly efi'ort of wide scope, in which
he briefly traced the history and growth of Eepublican gov-
ernment from the earliest times to the present. At one place
he said :
The history of nations in the past shows us very clearly that,
as a general rule, danger chiefly lies in the direction of concen-
tration of power, because it renders the prize more desirable, and
increases the anxiety and efforts to obtain it. As a nation in-
creases in numbers, wealth, and power, if at the same time the
wealth and power is gravitating toward a central point or into
the control of a few, there will, as a natural consequence, be an
increase in the efforts and desire to obtain the commanding posi-
tions and control the wealth, and in like ratio will be the in-
crease of unscrupulous schemes and corrupt efforts to succeed ;
and this, unless checked, must finally end in the destruction of
liberty.
Happily with us, the right of franchise and the use of the
ballot-box in the hands of the people forms the great and whole-
some check upon such a tendency and such efforts. Here lies
the palladium of our liberties, which it is our duty, my fellow-
citizens, to guard with an argus eye. Let this bulwark once be
broken down, and soon every vestige of our Eepublican institu-
tions will be rooted out, and liberty will be a word known only
as of the past.
In 1876 occurred Logan's famous tilt with the rebel briga-
diers in the Senate. It was during a two days' speech in
answer to assaults upon Grrant and Sheridan, the latter having
incensed the leaders of the Southern anarchists by denomi-
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 603
nating the White-Leaguers of Louisiana " banditti." In the
course of his speech, he said :
Sir, I ask you what Governor Kellogg was to do after that
horrible scene at Colfax ; after the taking possession of five per-
sons at Coushatta — Northern men, who had gone there with
their capital and invested it and built up a thriving little village,
but who were taken out and murdered in cold blood ; and not
only that, but they had murdered one of the judges and the dis-
trict attorney, and compelled the judge and district attorney of
that jurisdiction to resign, and then murdered the acting district
attorney. My friend from Georgia [Mr. Gordon] said in his way
and manner of saying things, " Why do you not try these people
for murdering those men at Coushatta? You have the judge
and you have the district attorney." Unfortunately for my
friend's statement, we have neither. Your friends had murdered
the attorney, and had murdered a judge before the new judge
had been appointed, who had to resign to save his life. The act-
ing district attorney was murdered by the same "banditti" that
murdered the five Northern men at Coushatta.
Here Senator Gordon, of Georgia, asked, " Where was the
United States Court at that time ? Where was the Enforce-
ment Act ? Where was the Army of the United States ?
Could not the United States Court, under the Enforcement
Act, take cognizance of these facts ? Was the District At-
torney of the United States not present ? "
" I will inform the Senator where they were," retorted
Logan. " The district attorney was in his grave, put there
by your political friends. The judge had been murdered a
year before. The one appointed in his place had to resign to
save his life. The United States Court was in New Orleans.
And he asks where was the United States army ? Great
God ! do you want the army ? I thought you had been rail-
ing at its use."
To this Gordon responded : " He has made the charge ;
604 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
I ask him to make it good or to withdraw it — one of the
two."
Logan settled the controversy with the defiant response :
"Ah, well, the Senator need not commence talking to me
about withdrawing ; I am not of that kind."
Proceeding with his merciless excoriation of the Southern-
ers, he said :
I am glad that I gave the Senator an opportunity to repeat
what he had said before. It only shows the feeling that there
is in the heart. Sometimes when we have said hard and harsh
things against a feUow-man, when we have cooling time we
retract. If, after we have had cooling time, the bitterness of
our heart only impels us to repeat it again, it only shows that
there is deep-seated feeling there which cannot be uprooted by
time. I gave the opportunity to the Senator to make his
renewed attack on Sheridan. I will now say what I did not
say before, — since he has repeated his remarks, — that his attack
upon Sheridan, and his declaration that Sheridan is not fit to
breathe the free air of a republic, is an invitation to the White-
Leaguers to assassinate him. If he is not fit to breathe the free
air, he is not fit to live. If he is not fit to live, he is but fit to
die. It is an invitation to them to perpetrate murder upon
him.
Now let me go further. I announce the fact here in this
Chamber to-day, and I defy contradiction, that the Democracy
in this Chamber have denounced Sheridan more since this
dispatch was published than they ever denounced Jeff. Davis
and the whole rebellion during four years' war against the Con-
stitution of this country. I dislike much to say these things ;
but they are true, and as truth ought not to hurt, I will say
them.
During this debate the galleries were hushed with suppressed
excitement, in expectation that the fiery brigadiers would
resort to violence, but they knew the metal of their man too
well to attempt to stop him by unparliamentary methods.
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 607
In 1876 General Logan made an eloquent opposition to the
clause in the Indian Appropriation Bill which proposed to
transfer the charge of Indian affairs to the army.
The various executive departments at Washington are con-
tinually reaching out to extend their jurisdiction. Thus the
Navy Department every year wants to absorb three or four
bureaus, which are at present under the Secretary of the
Treasury, and the War Department has long been in a
chronic state of hunger for the administration of the affairs
of the Indian Bureau.
Senator Logan opposed this policy, characterizing it as one
that would result admirably if the extermination of the
Indians was desired, but if it was the aim and duty of the
Government to civilize and Christianize them, it would prove
an utter failure. He said :
Sir, I have been a soldier many years of my life, and I love
the position of a soldier. I was fond of it when I belonged to
the army, but my belonging to the army never changed my
education so far as governmental affairs were concerned. I have
learned from history, by my reading from my childhood, that
the downfall of governments was by putting power in mihtary
hands. I have learned that republics must and can only be
maintained by civil authority, not by military.
Put the Indian Department under the War Department, then
the Pension Bureau next, then the Land Office next, then
abolish the Interior Department next, and then we have got
one-fourth of the Government under the charge of the military,
and thus a long step taken towards the resumption of military
authority in this country. Eemember the voices of Clay and
Webster, of the great statesmen in this land, against the usur-
pations and inroads of military authority. It is a lesson that
might well be learned now by men who are pluming themselves
that they are becoming great statesmen. Sir, it is a lesson to
be learned by the rising and future generations ; for the time
will never come that you will satisfy the honest people of this
608 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
country by making them believe that they are not fit for civil
government. I warn now the party that undertakes this step
in politics as well as in civilization and the advance of Chris-
tianity in this country ; I warn the man of his future who does
it ; for there is not an honest Christian in this land, be he of
whatever politics he may, who does not abhor the idea of
military government. He believes in peaceful means in bringing
about civilization, and is willing to undertake it, and do not
deprive him of the opportunity.
It will be remembered that the bill failed.
In 1876 General Logan was talked of very generally for the
Presidency of the United States. In fact, it is not generally
known, but it is true that when the deadlock occurred at the
Cincinnati Convention, he might have had the nomination, had
not a fine sense of honor prompted him to refuse the use of his
name. He had not entered the lists before the Convention, and
the Illinois delegation had been instructed for Blaine. Colonel
Eobert G . Ingersoll had presented the name of Mr. Blaine,
covering himself with glory as an orator, and giving the
Maine statesman the title of " The Plumed Knight." New
York had presented the name of her distinguished Senator,
Koscoe Conkling, and when it appeared that Mr. Blaine would
be nominated, the friends of the rival candidates offered to
unite on Logan, but, true to his trust, he refused to allow it
to be done, or in all human probability a stampede, such as
occurred at Chicago in 1880, would have laid the honor at his
feet. As it was, Hayes was the result.
The Kepublicans losing control of the State Legislature in
1876, a combination of Democrats and Independents secured
the election of David Davis to the United States Senate, to
succeed General Logan, and for two years he returned to his
long neglected business in Chicago, where he has resided since
the war.
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 609
Just before his return to the Senate, the bill for which
he had labored for years, to pay the disabled soldiers the
arrearages of pensions due them, was passed. This benefi-
cent measure had long received his ardent support, as had his
bill to equalize soldiers' bounties, the passage of which he
had secured once by both branches of Congress, but from
which President Grant felt called upon to withhold his ap-
proval.
Having voted for the Inflation Bill in response to the impera-
tive demand for it on the part of the people of his State, his
position upon financial questions has been somewhat mis-
understood, in spite of the fact that he gave the most hearty
support to the " Resumption Act." It will not be out of
place, therefore, to again allow him to speak for himself in
the words of his oration, at Van Wert, Ohio, Sept. 2, 1879.
Said he on this occasion :
The Democrats and Greenbackers say that the Eepublican
party don't understand the nature of our Greenback currency,
and they propose to take charge of it themselves, and see that
the people are posted. When the Greenbacks were first issued
some people said they were worthless rags, etc. Now, however,
they so love them that they are determined to have them strewn
out of the window of the Treasury with a pitchfork, so that any
one can have as many as he wants; and, strange to say, whenever
we speak of the opposition to the Greenback in former days, and
the affection for them now, the Democracy think we are shoot-
ing at them. [Laughter. ] Their conduct in this particular re-
minds me of a friend who refused to attend church for many
years, because, he said, the minister preached politics. One Sab-
bath, however, he was prevailed on to go with a lady relative.
During the sermon the minister quoted the language, " The
wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget
God." This gentleman left the church at once. When the lady
relative returned to his house, she inquired why he left church.
610 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
He said he would not listen to a political sermon. The lady re-
plied, " I did not hear any politics." He replied, " Did he not
say ' The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the Nations
that forget God ' ? " The lady replied, " Yes, but what of that ?"
" Why," said he, " if he did not mean the Democratic party, who
the devil did he mean ?" [Prolonged laughter.] Now I do not
want my Democratic and Greenback friends to get themselves so
mixed that they will not understand who is meant. [Laughter.]
But, my friends, the Greenback proposed to-day by our opponents
— the fiat currency, without the promise of the Government to
pay — is not the Greenback of the Republican party. The Green-
back of the Eepublican party is the one that contains the pledge
and good faith of the Government as to the volume to be issued ;
it is the one that contains a promise to pay ; the one that the
Supreme Court says is an obligation of the Government to pay in
coin of the United States of a quantity and fineness authenticated
by the stamp of the Government. This is our Greenback, and
we have kept every pledge of the Government in connection with
it. My countrymen, the Eepublican Greenback came forth amid
storm and confusion, with a promise upon its face, and the hope
and faith of the Nation bearing it along to the performance of
a great work, and, in obedience to our legislation, on the 1st
day of January last, it walked to the foot of the hill, and there,
standing in the presence of the gold and silver which glistened
upon its summit, did say, " I am here in accordance with the
promise of the Eepublican party, that I shall be made equal in
value with coin of a metallic ring, and I demand that it be
done" — and it has been done. [Great applause.]
Now, my friends, let us glance for a moment at the basis upon
which rests the whole theory of what is called the Greenback
creed ; improperly so called, however, as the Greenback belongs
to the Eepublican party by patent right, and the use of its
name in designation of a spurious article is as unwarranted as
it is dishonest. The basis of the Greenback creed, that which
underlies the main structure, as well as its various wings and
additions, — and this, too, whether promulgated in the platforms
of the National party or the Democratic party, or in their cam-
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 613
paign documents, or by their speakers on the stump, — is the
simple assertion that a government has the power to create
money. Now you will observe that there is a broad distinction
between the creation of actual or real money and the creation of
representative money. Governments can create representative
money, and every civilized government of the world probably
does so at this day. But mark the difference between real
money and representative money. Eeal money is something
which has an exchangeable value among all commercial nations,
and long usage has constituted the precious metals the materials
of which it shall be made.
Eepresentative money is something which represents real
money. Gold and silver are the metals which, by universal con-
sent, are used as the standards of value. And being so recog-
nized, they have an inherent worth — that is, the value lies within
the thing itself. Now paper, not being the standard of value,
has no inherent worth, no matter what devices may be printed
or engraved upon it. And when governments issue notes for
convenience of handling and safety against loss by robbery, etc.,
they can only have a value in so far as they represent the recog-
nized standard of value. Take that standard from behind them
and they are only bits of paper. Hence you see it is impossible
to create money out of nothing. A man may give you his note
of hand, promising to pay a certain sum by a certain date, but
his note is valuable to you only as it represents an ability and
disposition to pay that which is recognized as money by your
neighbors and will be taken by them in exchange for articles
which you need. But the Greenback theory proposes to take
away the representative character of the bill or note entirely, and
declare that a certain piece of paper is a dollar de facto. They
declare that the fiat of the Government is potent to give inherent
value to a thing which the world around us has said possesses
none. Of all the schemes for an inflated currency which have ever
been originated by the nations of the past and present genera-
tions, this has the least merit and safety under it. Even the
South-Sea bubble, which involved such wide-spread ruin, as well
as the assignat heresy of after-years, had each a representative
614 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
value to commend them to the people. But our friends of the
irredeemable Greenback persuasion have such faith in the power
of the Government to do anything it chooses, that they believe
if it puts a declaration upon a piece of blank paper like this, for
a thousand dollars, it must be so. Divinity itself could scarcely
go further.
My friends, I could make this thing so perfectly ridiculous, if
I desired to take your time, that it would be very laughable ;
but I will not.
I will, however, say right here, that if we all desire to be
honest, one with another, the way to be honest is to demand
honesty of the Government. Let your Government be honest,
and let your citizens be honest. Learn to adopt the same rule.
Then if you want to be honest, have honest money, and you will
have honest deahngs. Let your money have a fixed value,
whether gold, silver, or paper ; let it all be of the same value,
having the same purchasing power, and then nobody will be
cheated. Whenever you make money not redeemable in coin,
or whenever you make it of any character not having a standard
purchasing power, you cheat somebody. Any person who holds
such a dollar, when the time comes to make a change — to make
its value equal with others of higher value — is defrauded, because
the holder has something which is then worth less in money, or
which has not the full value of a dollar, so that somebody must
be cheated.
It reminds me a good deal of an old farmer who had studied
finance for years. When this Greenback question came up in
Congress, he wrote to his Eepresentative, stating that he had
been a Democrat, and a Whig, and everything, and had studied
all the systems of finance. Said he, "I have been a hard-
money Democrat," — just like all those Democrats have been, —
"then I got to be a soft-money Democrat," — just like most
of our Democrats have got to be; "but," said he, "after try-
ing that awhile, to write you the plain, honest truth, I have
come to the conclusion that the only way to have a dollar is to
have a hundred cents in it, and then nobody is cheated."
[Laughter.] And that is the only way. Three pecks of wheat
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 615
never made a bushel in the world, and the man that buys three
pecks for a bushel is cheated always. So it is with your money.
Eighty cents never was a dollar ; eighty-five cents never was a
dollar ; and ninety cents never was. It takes one hundred cents
to make a dollar in either paper currency, silver, or gold.
General Logan was re-elected to the United States Senate
November 22, 1879, and being called upon to address the joint
convention of the Legislature, closed his speech with the fol-
lowing categorical definition of his position upon the public
questions of the day :
My friends, we now see our country again beginning to march
on the road of prosperity. There are certain things we should
all stand by and insist upon.
First. That specie resumption must be maintained — honest
money alike for the poor and the rich. [Cheers. ]
Second. That provisions should be made to forever bar claims
against the Government — of any and all persons not positively
and openly favoring the Union — for damages, supplies taken, etc.,
during the rebellion.
Third. That* every citizen owes to his Government his best
efforts for its protection and preservation against foreign and
domestic enemies, and that the Government is bound to give such
protection as it can to its citizens on land and sea, at home and
abroad ; and when political rights are guaranteed under our Con-
stitution, there should be no distinction made — those guaranteed
to one being as sacred as those guaranteed to another — between
white or black, rich or poor, in IlHnois or South Carolina.
[Cheering. J And where the authorities of a State are powerless,
or where they refuse to protect citizens or communities against
armed mobs while attempting to exercise such political rights as
have been granted them, it is the duty of the Government to use
such power as it possesses to protect these citizens in the exercise
of such rights.
These propositions I propose to stand by, come what will.
[Cheers.]
616 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
The revolutionary methods resorted to hy the Democratic
party in the latter days of the Forty-fifth Congress are well
remembered, although the object of its failure to make the
necessary appropriations for the support of the army and ju-
diciary of the country may not be so well understood. It was
simply this : For the first time in the history of the country
since the war, the Democrats at the fall elections had gained
possession of both the United States Senate and the House
of Representatives. They had made a complete capture of
the legislative branch of the National Government, and im-
pelled by a political starvation of more than fifteen years' du-
ration, they decided to leave no measure untried to hasten
their early enjoyment of the spoils of patronage. The two
Houses of Congress have offices to give away to their partisan
friends, worth in the aggregate several hundred thousand dol-
lars annually. Should Congress adjourn after having made
the regular appropriations, the Democratic Senate would not
reorganize until the regular time of meeting in the ensuing
December, and during the intervening time the Republican
employees would draw their pay for the summer vacation.
A special session of the Forty-sixth Congress was therefore
made necessary. The Republicans in appointive positions at
the Capitol, who still maintained positions, were ousted, and
every position, from page up to the Secretary of the Senate,
was filled by a Democrat in place of a discharged Republican.
This petty reason for the revolutionary policy resorted to in
the Forty-fifth Congress may well evoke surprise on account
of the paltry consideration to be gained. The fact can be
clearly substantiated, however, that the motive indicated
above was the overpowering reason which brought about the
called session of the Forty-sixth Congress.
Some pretext was essential, however, to cloak the real object
in view, and to supply this want allegations of Federal usur-
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 619
pations in the Southern States were trumped up. Wrongs
were pictured, the redress of which was demanded. Instead
of '" State Eights," " Home Rule " was the cause for
which the plea was made, and to secure which, the course of
the Democrats was justified by their partisans. The fact was
that the alleged wrongs were a myth and a shallow pretense,
which was not suffered to go unchallenged. They proposed to
bring about the alleged reforms by means of amendments to
necessary bills.
The great fight took place over the Army Appropriation
Bill. In this discussion Senator Logan made a most scathing
criticism of the revolutionary nature of the attempt by the
Democrats to coerce the Executive into approval of obnoxious
riders upon appropriation bills upon the penalty of withhold-
ing appropriations unless their demands were complied with.
In the course of a speech upon the bill. General Logan said :
I cannot but regard the question which has arisen from this
first move of the Democratic party upon their re-establishment
in power looking to the grasping of the Government, as abso-
lutely the most important as well as the most vital question which
has presented itself as a menace to our Government since the
year 1861, when the same sentiment, as well as many of the same
men, aimed a blow at the integrity of the country. * * *
The people are the sovereigns of our country, and that measure
which cannot go before them on its merits and abide the time
and manner of their decision is weak, probably bad, and almost
certainly in the interest of the few as against the interest of the
many. Look for a moment, sir, at the history of this measure,
which proposes legislation of the most radical character. At
no period of its history has it appeared in the form of inde-
pendent legislation. Originally introduced into the last House
when the Senate was Republican in its majority, the evident
purpose was to compel the Senate's acquiescence in a proposition
which, as a measure appealing to their judgment and sense of
620 BIOGKAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
right, they could not indorse. Now that the majority of the
Senate has become Democratic, it is again before Congress with
the expectation that the Senate in passing it will assist in influ-
encing the last obstacle to its success — the Presidential scrutiny.
Plainly enough this course implies compulsion ; unusual and un-
recognized methods of accomplishment, as well as fear to abide
by the test of inherent merit. Note the violent circumstances,
so to speak, under which it was forced upon the last Congress :
parliamentary rules providing that no legislation should be affixed
to appropriation bills unless not only germane to the subject, but
likewise retrenching in character, must be overridden, rendered
iTseless and nugatory, in order to force this character of legisla-
tion upon the country. I have no desire to criticise the purposes
of any legislator in the discharge of his functions, but I draw
attention to this point as tending to show the determination to
consummate this piece of proposed legislation against time,
against argument, against the co-operative branches of the Gov-
ernment, and against the people, who, it must be presumed, are
not to be trusted with the decision of this question.
Now, sir, I say the methods by which this legislation is at-
tempted are bad upon their face, and argue in convincing terms
against its propriety. * * *
Our Government is one of co-ordinate powers which have
mutual duties, independent responsibilities, and separate checks
one upon the other. If one branch of the Government takes
away the freedom of action of the others, it usurps the powers,
privileges, and functions of the whole. Now, sir, this constitutes
coercion of the boldest, rankest kind. The measure being
coercive is certainly against the spirit of the Constitution, and,
being so, is revolutionary to the last degree. The logic of this
conclusion is so inevitable as to permit no outlet for escape. In the
debate which has taken place on this bill, instances were adduced
in sufficient number to show most convincingly how either House
of Congress, by a refusal to perform its constitutionally prescribed
duties, or by performing them in a manner not contemplated by
the framers of the Constitution, might disrupt the Government
as effectually as though accomplished by sword and gun, and the
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 621
illustration might have been carried much further, which I will
not take the time of the Senate in doing. The example, sir, of
other governments — even if they correspond in essential points
of resemblance to our own, and those examples which have been
heretofore cited by the supporters of this measure do not so cor-
respond— would afford no salutary precedent for our own pro-
cedure. Why? Because the constitution and genius of our
governmental fabric are so entirely different as to furnish no
precise points of correspondence from which to draw parallel
illustrations. Being purely a Government of consentaneous
powers in its legislative and executive features, the moment the
free agency of one of the elements is interfered with, that mo-
ment is violence done to the genius of the structure, and that
moment is the ideal of republican government dissolved and
hidden in the dark shadows of a government by force. The
principle may live, sir, but the tangible essence will vanish.
Now, sir, if the legitimacy of the principle of compelling one or
two branches of the Government to yield to the other that free
agency which constitutes one of the beauties and safeguards of
the Kepublic be firmly established, then it is but a simple ques-
tion of time and incident as to the precise period when the
Government will go to pieces like a ship upon the rocks, and the
American may exclaim with the Roman General, " Actum est de
republica" ('' It is all over with the republic ").
This destruction will not come of necessity from the action
contemplated in this bill ; it will not this year, nor probably the
next ; but year by year encroachments will be made in this direc-
tion and in that direction ; first one safeguard will be overturned
and then another ; to-day we shall have a statute repealed by in-
direct methods, and next year we may have the provisions of the
Constitution itself subverted by the simple action of one branch
of the National Government.
He showed by unimpeachable records that elections were a
mockery in most of the Southern States, and that the count
and return bore little or no relation to the ballots cast for the
opposing candidates. He warned the Southern people against
622 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
this system of public corruption, and predicted an anarchy
which would inevitably follow sooner or later if this policy
should be persisted in.
In conclusion, he said :
The RepubKcan party want peace ; they have shown it by every
concession which honor and dignity would permit ; they will
still sacrifice much to obtain a permanent peace; but the Democ-
racy may as ^ell learn now as later that there are some things
the Eepublicans will not do to reach a peace which can but be
dishonorable to them and to the country. They will not abjectly
beg upon their knees for peace. They will not relinquish any o%
those advanced principles which have inured to the Government
and the people through the sufferings of the war. They will
never abandon the principles enunciated in the thirteenth, four-
teenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. They will
never permit a modification of the rights of the four million
blacks of the South. They, after having been liberated from
slavery and elevated to the full rights of citizenship, shall not be
remanded to a condition as bad as or worse than serfdom or
peonage. They will never, never quietly permit, sir, the elective
franchise, upon the purity of which rests our whole political
structure, to be dispensed at the hands of hired ruflBans and paid
assassins.
Now, sir, let me invite the Democracy to a peace which shall be
coextensive with the whole limits of our country ; which shall be
honorable to them and honorable to us ; which shall be lasting as
the American name ; which shall elevate us in the estimation of
all the nations, and stamp our Government as a model for all
other peoples for a thousand centuries — a peace which must be
built upon genuine ties of respect between citizens of a common
country ; which must rest upon the concession of equal rights to
all citizens of the Eepublic, be they white or black, foreign or
native born — a peace which must know no State lines for abrogat-
ing the rights of citizens, but shall cluster around the American
flag as the emblem of a patriotic and virtuous people united
under a government strong enough to defy the monarchs of the
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 625
world and also protect its citizens in all their constitutional
rights, 'on land and on sea, at home and abroad, leaving the great
future of our glorious country clean, clear, and full, in the blaz-
ing sunlight of our hope.
The startling array of facts disclosing the condition of
political morals in the South, at a time when it was fondly
hoped in many quarters that since the suppression of the Ku-
Klux and their violent measures a better era had dawned in
the lately rebellious States, created a profound sensation
throughout the country. The newspapers everywhere were
filled with encomiums of the ability and gallantry with which
General Logan had handled an unpleasant question.
Out of this debate on the Army Appropriation Bill grew an
incident in General Logan's life which has reflected lasting
honor on his courage and good sense. On the 16th of the
month, the Washington correspondent of the Pittsburg Post
telegraphed to his paper an interview with Representative W.
M. Lowe, of Alabama, who had been an officer in the rebel
army. Smarting naturally under the arraignment of the Con-
federate Brigadiers by Senator Logan, he saw fit to revive the
old slander reflecting upon Logan's loyalty at the outbreak of
the war, which has been fully discussed in previous pages of
this work. The dispatch in the Pittsburg papers ran as
follows :
The grandeur of Logan's loyalty is dimmed a little by the fol-
lowing conversation, which occurred between your correspondent
and Congressman Lowe, of Alabama, a Greenback Representative
from the Huntsville District :
Correspondent. — "Are you sure. Colonel Lowe, that Senator
Logan ever contemplated entering the Confederate service ? "
Colonel Lowe. — " I am sure that there were three regiments
of Illinois men in the Confederate service ; that I fought through
the war with them ; that I knew and often conversed with many
626 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN. A. LOGAN.
of them, and that, without exception, those with whom I talked
on the subject assured me that their regiments were raised by
Logan for the Confederate service. Why, it is so true that
Logan himself will not deny it if asked it upon the floor of the
Senate. He will dodge the question. True ? Why, I tell you
I have talked with men whom I knew, and who declared that
they were enlisted for the Confederate service by Logan."
Five days later, on the 21st of April, General Logan replied
with an unqualified denial of the charge made by Lowe, and
branded his assertions as false in the columns of the National
Repuhlican. After quoting the interview which is given above,
he proceeded to say :
As to there being three regiments of Illinois men in the Con-
federate service, and that I raised them or any of them for the
Confederate army, in defense of the honor of the State I in part
represent, and of myself, I answer the statement is false. There
were not three regiments in the Confederate service from Ilhnois,
-^or two, nor one ; and that I ever raised a regiment or company,
iny part of a company, or had anything to do, either directly
Hrectly, in raising men for such service, is maliciously and
nsly false. And it is further stated in said dispatch that
'ement [meaning that I raised men for the Confederate
0 true that I would not deny the charge if made on
he Senate," but that "I would dodge the question."
1 .ay " that I do not now nor have I ever dodged the
qu ?he Avhole statement, so far as I am concerned, is a
vine. d malicious lie."
He lemented this with a statement of the origin, his-
tory, and complete refutation of the charge, and concluded his
letter thus :
I understand that Colonel Lowe claims that this is not a cor-
rect report of what he said to the reporter. If not, he should cor-
rect the statement, and make the reporter responsible for putting
\
\
Logan in the senate. 627
a lie in his mouth. The statement I brand as false and slan-
derous, and Colonel Lowe and the reporter can settle it between
themselves as to which one has been guilty of perpetrating this
villainous falsehood. John A. Logan.
Colonel Lowe in return wrote a communication to the press,
in which he quoted the last paragraph of General Logan's
letter to the Hejoublican, characterizing it as obnoxious to him
as a gentleman. He proceeded to say that on the 21st of April
he sent a note to General Logan, which ended thus :
This being the substance of my statement in said interview, I
desire to know whether in your communication to the Republican
this morning you apply the words " Mse and slanderous " to me.
(Signed) Wm. M. Lowe.
This will be handed to you by my friend, Charles Pelham, Esq.
(Signed) Wm. M. L.
He goes on to say that Judge Pelham, his friend, delivered
this note to Senator Logan at his city residence on the morn-
ing of the 22d, and receiving no reply, he sent, on the moraing
of the 24th, another which stated the fact of his having sent
the letter of the 21st, and repeating its substance, continued :
Having received no reply to that letter, I am forced to again
call your attention to these offeosive words, and to demand to
know whether you apply them to me. My friend, Charles Pel-
ham, Esq., is authorized to receive your reply.
Very respectfully,
(Signed) Wm. M. Lowe.
This note, Mr. Lowe said in his letter, was delivered to
Senator Logan in the vestibule of the Senate Chamber on the
afternoon of the day of date, and receiving still no response,
he sent the following, which was delivered at three o'clock, p.m.,
April 25th : —
628 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Washington, D. C, April 25, 1879.
Hon. John A. Logan.
Sir: On the 31st inst. you published in the Republican of
this city a communication containing words personally reflect-
ing upon me. I have twice addressed you a note calling atten-
tion to this language. You have failed and refused to answer
either of them, and you thereby force me to the last alterna-
tive. I therefore demand that you name some time and place
out of this District where another communication will presently
reach you. My friend, Charles Pelham, Esq., is authorized to
act in the premises.
Eespectfully,
(Signed) Wm. M. Lowe.
Mr. Lowe concluded his version of the affair as follows :
Thus ended this one-sided correspondence, which explains
itself. It needs little or no comment from me. I will not brand
John A. Logan as a liar, for he is a Senator of the United States ;
I will not post him as a scoundrel and poltroon, for that would
be a violation of the local statutes ; but I do publish him as one
who knows how to insult but not how to satisfy a gentleman,
and 1 invoke upon him the judgment of the honorable men of
the community. Very respectfully,
(Signed) Wm. M. Lowe.
No sensation at the Capital for years attracted the attention
throughout the country which was at once given to this epi-
sode. When the fact that Lowe had challenged Logan became
known, some said that Logan, being a military man, would
accept and fight him ; those who knew his history and were
familiar with his character, never for a moment entertained the
idea that he would adopt a course so contrary to his own
judgment and in violation of the law and morals of the age.
We have seen that when yet a young man, a member of his
own State Legislature, he stigmatized a resort to the duello as
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 631
barbarous and offensive to the enlightenment of the day. He
had made a bold effort to prevent the qualification for office by
the Governor-elect, and in that connection had given full ex-
pression to his views on the subject. His course in the prem-
ises was exceedingly dignified and in sharp contrast with the
bluster of the Southerner. General Logan held that a man
who had deliberately lied about him, and then had nothing to
say when asked for an explanation except the proposition of a
bully, had forfeited his right to be treated as a gentleman, and
he declined to pay the slightest attention to his letters, an-
nouncing to Lowe's friend. Judge Pelham, that he need not
bring him any further missives of this character, as he would
not receive them.
The people of his own State unanimously applauded his
course, and a joint caucus of the Republican members of the
Illinois Legislature adopted by acclamation the following :
Resolved, That we, the Eepublicau members of the General
Assembly of the State of Illinois, in joint caucus assembled,
heartily approve of the action of Senator Logan in his recent con-
troversy with Representative Lowe. That, having heretofore
demonstrated his courage on many a hard-fought battle-field, it
is not now necessary for him to resort to the false and demoral-
izing duello code of the South to vindicate either his honor or his
courage, and we recognize in the present attitude of Senator
Logan a moral courage far higher and more commendable than
any he could display in accepting a challenge or meeting his
antagonist on any falsely-called field of honor.
The secular press of the country, without exception, gave
great attention to this episode in General Logan's life, regard-
ing it as a very important step in its effect upon public senti-
ment with reference to the duello. Naturally, the religious
papers of the country heartily endorsed the manner in which
632 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
he bore himself — the Christian Advocate of May 1, 1879,
having the foUowiag to say about it :
Lowe says, retract, fight, or be flogged; but Logan does not
obey orders with the shghtest alacrity. He does not retract. He
leaves Lowe and the reporter to wrangle about which one tells
the lie. He does not fight. He does not even allow his stable-
boy to run a foot-race with Lowe. He does not recognize Lowe's
existence. He acts as if Lowe, having communicated a mean,
slanderous crime beneath the possibilities of any gentleman,
cannot be treated as a gentleman till he acts like one. The old
bully and bludgeon business of the South with the cry of coward
is unavailing. General Logan bears too many honorable scars
for even his enemies to hint at cowardice. No man that ever
heard of " Champion Hills " could beheve such a hint. It only
remains for Lowe to flog the General when he meets him on the
street. But that is not an undertaking for boys. Possibly half
a dozen of these bullying bulldogs might venture to assail him.
Even that is not safe.
* * * * * * *
We are glad General Logan remembers that he is a Christian
statesman and not a heathen prize-fighter or gladiator. He rep-
resents a Christian civilization. He is intrusted with the honor
of membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he can-
not stoop to be insulted by any bully.
Another religious paper said ;
John A. Logan is a good Methodist and will not fight a duel,
but he uses pretty strong language sometimes. When Mr.
Lowe's "second" waited on Logan with a challenge, Logan re-
fused to receive it, and said, "Go to hell with it! I will not
even recognize the existence of your principal until he makes an
abject apology" — to which we, with all the good Methodist
brethren, say Amen.
Among the other revolutionary demands of the Democrats
at the special session of the Forty-sixth Congress, was one to
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 633
deprive the United States Marshals of their power to enforce
honest elections in the Southern States. They sought to effect
their purpose by attaching a " rider " to the Appropriation Bill,
which would accomplish the ohject, owing to the constitu-
tional inability of the President to approve or disapprove any
measure of Congress, excepting as a whole. It was well under-
stood that the Democratic majority in the House, made up
largely from the South, owed its existence to the processes to
which their political managers in the Southern States had
resorted in the count of the popular vote. In order to facilitate
such transactions in the future, they proposed a clause to be
inserted in the Appropriation Bill, for the direction of the
United States Marshals, to the effect that no part of the
money thereby appropriated should be used to pay any com-
pensation, fees, or expenses under any provisions of the
Eevised Statutes then in force, authorizing the appointment,
employment, and payment of special or deputy marshals for
services in connection with registration or election on election
day. They proposed, further, that no department or officer
of the Government should, during the said fiscal year, make
any contract or incur any liability for a future payment of
money to any person for such services. For a violation
of this law they provided a heavy fine and five years'
imprisonment, or both ; thus for the first time in the
history of the Government offering not only to repeal
the law in force, but to make its observance a penal
offense.
General Logan at once took issue with the Democrats
in this attitude of defiance to law and justice, and made a
speech in support of his position which completely unhorsed
the Democracy, exposing the prime motives at the bottom of
their plan. In the course of his extensive discussion of the
subject, he said :
634 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
You can find no such instance in the history of all the enact-
ments of any government. It at least has been understood by
us heretofore that it was the duty of peace-officers to see that
the peace was preserved. It is their duty to see that the laws
are obeyed and are faithfully executed. It is their duty to pro-
tect citizens and to make arrests where violence is used or where
violations of the law are wantonly perpetrated. And yet we are
told distinctly in this bill to-day that wherever peace is broken
on election day you shall not restore it ; that is to say, if the
peace is kept, there is no necessity then for an attempt to keep
it; but if the peace is not kept, then you shall make no more
eflfbrt to keep it than if it were perfectly preserved ; that is, the
United States shall not do it. In other words, if a murder is
about to be committed, it is aU well enough to stop it ; but if
the life is to be preserved by an officer of the United States, it
will be better to let the murder be committed. No marshal, no
deputy-marshal, under any of these sections in title 26, shall
enforce the law or protect the citizen against violence or in the
exercise of a plain and constitutional duty. This, sir, is strange
legislation indeed. It is even strange legislation for Democrats.
It would be exceedingly strange legislation for Republicans.
Why, sir, it would be strange legislation for the Fiji Islanders !
We boast of our civilization ; we boast of our country, of our
institutions, of the freedom of thought, the freedom of speech,
the free exercise of the rights of the citizen in this glorious land
of ours. We say it is the freest land on earth, and we glory in
the name of free America. Yet to-day you propose to place
upon the statute books of the United States a declaration that
the Government shall not enforce the law by one of its marshals
for the purpose of protecting its citizens and keeping the peace.
I did not know that we were running at railroad speed into nul-
lification and anarchy, and against the peace and good order of
society. Why, sir, soon we will be in the very midst of confusion
and disobedience to law, in the very midst of violence and
tumult, the abridgment of rights and the destruction of great
and fundamental principles. The nuUiflcation and disobedience
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 637
of law is one of the first steps in the direction of disintegration
and dissolution.
Such legislation is calculated to bring our country and our
laws into disrepute and make us a laughing-stock in the eyes of
the civilized nations of the earth.
I do not know whether this bill is to become a law or not. If
so, I can only characterize it as surpassing all attempts that have
yet been made by any Congress since this Government was
formed, to show an utter determination to defy the laws — to
nullify them by legislation. In other words, it is a rebellious
spirit and act against the enforcement of the laws. That is the
least you can make out of it.
I tell Senators that this legislation will come home to plague
the inventors very soon. You may imagine that in your wisdom
in these halls, where statesmanship ought to dwell, you have
managed and manipulated so that the country will sustain you
in that which you have done ; but I tell you, when the people
understand that you have torn down every guarantee to the pro-
tection of their rights at the ballot-box ; that you have disarmed
the President of the United States and destroyed a portion of his
power; that you have refused appropriations to exercise that
authority for the purpose of protecting the peace of the people
at the polls ; and then by a second law you have demanded that
no civil officer shall enforce the laws under the mandates of the
courts or under the orders of the Executive of the United States
for the purpose of keeping the peace in this country — when they
understand that, you will find, even among the hot-bloods in
this country, even among the people who think they ought to be
exasperated on account of some imaginary offense perpetrated
against them, even among the people who may think they are
maltreated and much abused in every respect, and that their
rights are trampled under foot — even among this class of un-
thinking people, in their sober moments, they will never agree
to any such proposition as this ; but they will say to you, " The
theory of our Government is that the Constitution shall be
obeyed; that the laws made in pursuance thereof shall be ex-
ecuted ; that if the lawg are bad laws they shall be repealed ; but
638 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
until they are repealed no party has a right to nullify them and
deny their enforcement."
Sir, the idea that American citizens shall deny any authority
for the enforcement of the laws is a theory never taught by the
statesmen of this land before. It has never been taught by your
Clays, your "Websters, and your leading men. Eevolution may
have been taught, but there is a difference between revolution
and nullifying a law. Where people may believe that oppression
is bearing them down, and they undertake to throw off the yoke
or throw off the laws by revolution, it is very different from de-
nying the power of the Government to enforce the laws that they
themselves enact and are required to observe. The very laws
that you yourselves have taken an oath to support, the very laws
that you are bound to aid the Executive in enforcing, are the
very laws that you tell the citizen shall not be obeyed.
K the law in reference to protecting the citizens by a marshal
on the day of an election shall not be enforced, although it re-
mains upon the statute-book, I want you to tell me why the law
against murder shall be enforced, and why a citizen should be
subject to the law ? Why shall the law against larceny be en-
forced.^ Why shall ^the law against arson be enforced? Why
shall the law against robbing the Treasury be enforced ? Why
shall the law against defrauding the revenues be enforced ? Why
shall the law against perjury be enforced ? Why shall the law
against any of the offenses known in the catalogue of crime be
enforced ? You have as much right to deny the enforcement of
the law against any crime as you have to deny the enforcement
of the laws for the preservation of the peace at the polls. The
man who teaches the doctrine to-day that the citizen shall not
obey the law, but it shall be nullified by withholding appropria-
tions and by making it a penal offense to execute the law,
teaches a doctrine that finally will become revolutionary, and
will produce the same treasonable course that we have heretofore
witnessed, for it leads to that. It leads to refusing to obey any
law unless you yourselves have written it, unless you yourselves
have enacted it. It leads to disobedience of the power and
supremacy of the Government ; and finally it will find its results
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 639
in disobedience to all laws, and the citizens, taught to take the
power in their own hands, will execute that which serves their
purpose and disobey that which does not serve their purpose. In
that way we are taught the lessons of Mexico, we are taught the
lessons of the South American republics — the lesson of revolu-
tion, riot, and bloodshed against the peace and stability of our
country.
Mr. President, in my judgment there will be a still small voice
that will come up from the midst of the people of this country
ere long that will be a warning to some of our friends in the
future. The whisj)erings of that voice will be that the teaching
of the good men, the honest men, and patriots has been and is,
obedience to the laws and the Constitution of their country. Men
who teach otherwise than this are bad teachers for a community,
are false teachers for a rising generation, and are sowing the
seeds of destruction in their own government.
After the adjournment of Congress that summer, 1879,
General Logan entered at once into the exciting campaign
which followed. So much attention had his conflict with the
Confederate brigadiers excited that he was called for, to fill ap-
pointments for political speeches, more frequently during that
season than any other man in the United States. He responded
in every case where it was possible, speaking for weeks once or
twice every day, and traveling back and forth across three or
four States of the Union, addressing immense crowds at the
more important towns on his way. The Cincinnati Commer-
cial, speaking of the campaign that fall, said that the informa-
tion from Columbus disclosed an unprecedented number of
applications for speakers, and that John A. Logan was wanted
in the most places. In Ohio, next after Logan came Garfield,
and after Garfield, Blaine ; and the writer in the paper ex-
pressed surprise that " Zach " Chandler did not come first.
He proceeded to suggest that when a candidate for President
was wanted next time, John A. Logan would probably be
640 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
again called for by more people than any other man in the
country.
Returning from an ovation throughout Ohio, he took a trip
in the State of Iowa, being greeted by enthusiastic multitudes
at every point he appeared. At Waterloo he spoke twice in
one day, and hurried on to West Liberty, Newton, Des
Moines, and other places, winding up the campaign with a
great meeting at Burlington. He fairly took Iowa by storm.
Returning to Chicago in November, he delivered the address
before the Union Veteran Club in that city, in the course of
which he discussed at length all the political problems of the
hour ; declaring that he did not believe the armies of the Union
fought for the purpose of enforcing the laws against themselves
and letting them go unenforced against others ; that he did
not believe the protection of the Government belonged to
white men or to the men of any color exclusively ; and that
while the Constitution, by its fourteenth amendment, made
every man a citizen, it required of him a duty to the Govern-
ment whenever it called for his services, which he was bound
to obey. It involved the same duty on him in war as in peace,
and while this duty devolved on the citizen, the Government,
in turn, was bound to protect him in aU his rights and privi-
leges, political and social. He did not believe in one law for
the citizen of Illinois, and another for the citizen of Mississippi ;
he believed that Government had the right, and should enforce
it, to protect its citizens at an election, general or local, allow-
ing every man to vote as he pleased, and assuring an honest
count of his vote as cast ; he believed that the power was in-
vested in the Government to protect its citizens anywhere in
the right of franchise and personal liberty.
In February, 1880, he made in the Senate a legal argument
in favor of the payment by the United States of the Five Per
Gent, Claims of lUiaois and other States against the Govern-
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 643
merit for the laud located by military warrant within their
boundaries. Although in this proposition he was opposed by
such lawyers as Senator Edmunds and others of prominence,
it was admitted by his opponents that it was " a very able
argument." He maintained that this was a contract between
the Grovernment of the United States and those States, which
had been entered into and carried out in good faith on the
part of the people desiring the growth of the country, and
under this arrangement they had consented to proffer these
inducements to stimulate the settlement of the New West.
He declared that each and every compact with the States
should be kept in the same good faith, and everything
promised for the welfare of the people should be faithfully
and religiously fulfilled.
In Marcli of that year occurred one of the chief episodes in
General Logan's Senatorial career, being his famous speech,
lasting four days, in opposition to the bill to restore Fitz-John
Porter to the army and give him $60,000 back pay. The
public and members of the House of Representatives filled the
galleries and floor of the Senate, and the Capitol was thronged
with immense crowds, many of whom were unable to gain ad-
mission to hear the Senator's argument on the question.
Officers of the army and navy, members of the Cabinet, with
judges of the Supreme Court, filled every available corner of
the Senate floor, and listened with rapt attention throughout
the entire four days. The press of the country universally
acknowledged the breadth and force of General Logan's logic,
and the bill met with such crushing treatment at his hands
that the attempt to reinstate Porter at that time was aban-
doned. No speech has ever been delivered in the United States
Senate which embodied a more complete review of the facts
and the law in the case under discussion than he brought
to bear against the Porter Bill on this occasion. It will be
644 BIOGRAPHY OF (JEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
impossible here, of course, to present even a syllabus of the
argument, but a few paragraphs, with which he closed his
address, are as follows :
Then, sir, in conclusion, I say as an American citizen, as a
Senator of the United States, I do most sincerely and earnestly
protest against the passage of this proposed bill.
By every remembrance of gratitude and loyalty to those whose
faithful devotion preserved their country, I must protest against
this stupendous reward to him who, in the judgment of the
court, faltered in duty and failed in honor in the hour of peril
and climax of battle.
I protest, because the precedent sought to be established would
prove a source of unknown evils in the future. It would stand
hereafter as an incentive to military disobedience in the crisis of
arms, and as assurance of forgiveness and emolument for the
most dangerous crime a soldier can commit.
I protest, because every sentence heretofore executed upon
subordinates in the service for minor offenses would stand as the
record of a cruel tyranny if this supreme crime is to be condoned
and obliterated and its perpetrator restored to rank and rewarded
with pay.
I protest, because the spirit of patriotism, upon which alone
we must rely in the Nation's need, hereafter will be shamed and
subdued by inflicting this brand of condemnation upon those
patriotic men who began and conducted the original proceedings
and sanctioned the original sentence, as well as upon others,
equally patriotic, who afl&rmed the sentence and refused to annul
its just decree.
I protest, because the money appropriated by this act will be
money drawn from the Treasury in furtherance of an unauthor-
ized purpose, and in defiance of the rules of law.
I protest, because the bill is loaded with startling innovations.
It overrides statutes and is the exercise of unconstitutional power.
It subverts the order of military promotion, and postpones the
worthy to advance the unworthy. Its tendency is to applaud
insubordination. Its effect will be to encourage dereliction of
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 645
duty. The soldier and the civilian will alike feel its baneful in-
fluence ; for such an error, if once permitted to creep into our
system of laws, can never be eradicated. Upon every motive for
the public good, without one impulse personal to myself against
the subject of this bill, with every proper remembrance of the
past tempered by every proper concihation in the present, but
looking sternly at the inevitable consequences in the future, I
protest against this enactment as a duty I owe to the country
which I cannot and would not avoid.
Early in this year the candidacy of General Logan for the
Presidency of the United States was again agitated, and the
fact that his name was not presented to the great Convention
in 1880 was entirely due to himself. While Mr. Blaine,
Secretary Sherman, and himself were being canvassed as the
most available and popular men for the nomination, he de-
clared his position in the following terms :
''I am in favor of the nomination of General Grant for the
Presidency, simply and only because he is the strongest and most
available man in the contest. I am not making war on any of
the rival candidates; no man has heard me say a cruel or
unjustifiable word about Mr, Blaine, Mr. Sherman, or indeed
any of the gentlemen whose names have been mentioned as
candidates. That I go against them is true ; but only because
I am for General Grant."
Political adversaries at once suggested, as a matter of course,
that General Logan was " trying to play the part of a dark
horse in the contest." He at once wrote an open letter to the
press, in which he said distinctly : " I never play hide-and-
seek in politics. When I wish to be a candidate, I say so,
and make a square, honorable fight for it. I never have any
second choice. The man that I am for is my choice always,
unless he is defeated ; then the choice made by my friends
becomes my choice."
646 BIOGKAPHY OP GElJ. JOHN A. LOGAN.
The Herculean struggles of General Logan during the
preliminary canvass of 1880 in favor of the candidacy of
General Grant are well remembered. He was thoroughly
identified with the school of politicians then characterized as
" Stalwarts/' and manfully did he fight to the last under the
banner of " the old commander." He went down gallantly
with the famous " 306/' in the whirlwind which terminated
the struggle at Chicago ; but he met defeat gracefully, and
was the first to carry the colors of the Kepublican party again
to the front with the declaration that the nominee of the Con-
vention was his candidate, and that he was in the battle to
win. Without allowing a day to pass he entered the cam-
paign with all his power, taking the stump for Garfield and
laboring for his election constantly to the end of the cam-
paign.
There is a little episode in connection with this Convention
which the writer believes has never been in print, and proba-
bly Colonel "Dick" Oglesby, of Hlinois, does not know to
this day how near he came to being President of the United
States. Upon the nomination of Garfield, the Convention
took a recess, because it was instinctively understood that time
was necessary for consultation, and to fill out the ticket. The
friends of General Garfield were frightened at what they had
done, even in the flush of success, and were ready to make any
concession to the friends of General Grant in the matter of a
candidate for the Vice-Presidency. They laid at the feet of
the solid cohorts who had stood by him for thirty-six ballots the
choice of a man who would secure their support for the ticket as
a whole. Humiliated at failure, and stung to the quick at what
they deemed an unjustifiable rejection of their candidate, the
New York Senator and other leaders of the Stalwart wing,
except Logan, declined to give any expression of encourage-
ment in return for the overtures made by Garfield's friends.
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 649
They seemed disposed in that hour of hitter reverse to leave
the responsibility of the election of the candidate entirely to
the men who had made the nomination. General Logan
instantly took the opposite ground. He declared that Garfield
had been nominated by the highest council of the party, and
that it was their duty to unite cordially and contribute by
every means in their power to his success. Upon the refusal
of the leader of the New York delegation to present the name
of Levi P. Morton, or any other New Yorker, he declared, in
unmistakable terms, that while he, as well as other politicians,
considered it best under the circumstances to give the Empire
State the second place on the ticket, in deference to the wishes
of the Ohio men who spoke for Garfield, still, if Mr. Conkling,
or some other prominent delegate from New York, would
not present a man for the position, he proposed to rise in
the Convelition and name "Dick" Oglesby for the Vice-
Presidency. The New Yorkers still refused to have any-
thing to do with it, and it was not until the very hour of
the re-assembling of the Convention, that they finally yielded,
in the face of the determined position which General Logan
took on the question, and consented to present the name of
Chester A. Arthur. General Logan cordially acquiesced in
this arrangement, believing, with Garfield's friends, that it
was important that .New York should be recognized on the
ticket, but otherwise he demanded that the honor should be
given to a favorite son of Illinois, in the person of Oglesby.
In the bitter contest which ensued between President
Garfield and the New York Senators he continued to occupy
consistent ground, and supported the Administration which
the Republican party had placed in power.
The conversion of General Grant upon the Fitz- John Porter
matter created a profound impression throughout the country
and revived the hopes of Porter's friends, who had not in-
650 BIOGRAPfiT OP GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
dulged in the expectation of final success since the utter
demolition of their cause by Senator Logan's speech early in
1880. It was believed by many that, in the face of the posi-
tion maintained by such an eminent military authority as Gen-
eral Grant, General Logan himself would yield, and desist
from further opposition to Porter's restoration. In reply to
General Grant's review of the case in the North American
Beview, he wrote an article published by the Chicago Tribune
in November, 1881, in which he reiterated his views in the
most convincing manner, and gave the reasons succinctly for
his unalterable judgment in the premises. It was suggested
by many writers in the press that the episode would lead to
an estrangement between Grant and Logan ; but in this they
were mistaken in the Senator's character, for not many weeks
after the appearance of General Grant's article, he called up
in the Senate the bill to place the latter on the retired list of
the army, and proceeded eloquently in the defense of his old
leader, in response to attacks by the Senators on the Demo-
cratic side of the Chamber. He declared that to Ulysses S.
Grant, more than to any man in this nation who had to do
with the army of the country, we owed to-day a debt of
gratitude that future generations could never repay. He said
that by the agency of this man the flag of our fathers and of
this country had been unfurled from the house-tops and
the hill-tops, and the songs of the nation were echoed in
the valleys. He asked the Democratic Senators what they
had against General Grant. They were willing to restore
Fitz-John Porter to the army, a man who had been dismissed
from the service in disgrace ; whose dismissal had been signed
by Lincoln and agreed to by Garfield, yet they refused to retire
General Grant, to whom we were indebted for the salva-
tion of this country more than to any other. He told them
that the success of the Union, secured by General Grant, was
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 651
as much theirs as that of the North against whom they had
fought ; that they had the same interests in the common
future of the Nation, and the glory of Grant's achievements
was their glory ; that prejudice should die out, and the
country go forward together, teaching the people unity and
prosperity by their own energy and labor.
During the winter of 1881 and 1882, when the Pension Ap-
propriation Bill was before the Senate, General Logan replied
to the attacks made upon it because of its amount, in the most
vigorous terms. He admitted that it was enormous ; there
were other appropriations which were enormous, and many
were voted where there was not half so much merit as in the
Pension Bill. It was true that we appropriated more than
$100,000,000 a year for this purpose, but we did so because
the country owed it. Other appropriations were made where
we did not owe the money, but in this case it was a solemn
debt which this Government should and could discharge. He
did not know why it should be characterized as a raid on the
Treasury any more than it was a raid to pay a claim in obedi-
ence to the judgment of a court. He said there were many
persons in this country drawing pensions whose wounds were
covered by their garments, and unseen ; wounds painful to
them, and because such men were going about, people said
they were not entitled to pensions. He cited an instance he
knew of an ex-army officer in Washington City ; he was a
pensioner, but he appeared to be in perfect health ; and yet
his intimate friends knew that, although he appeared so well,
he wore a seton in his body running from side to side, where
he had been shot, and had done so ever since the war ; it was
necessary to keep the wound open in order to preserve his life.
There were numberless instances of the same kind, and it ill
became those who did not serve in the army, on either side, to
to set themselves up in judgment and say that others who had
652 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
done duty in battle, in camp and on the march, were not de-
serving of the pittance they drew from the United States
Government in return for the numberless hardships and the
wreck of their physical powers, which would last to the day
of their death. With reference to the bill for the payment of
arrearages, he said that this provision should have been at-
tached in the beginning, and it was only justice and common
sense that the soldier should receive a pension from the time
he was discharged on account of the injury, and not from
the date when his case might be completed in the Pension
Office. He said the bill for arrears was really an amend-
ment to the law which had been omitted in the beginning,
and was simply supplying an omission which should have
been embodied in the original act. It was no objection to
make against the correction of an error that, owing to the
long lapse of time in which it had been in force, the amount of
dues which had accumulated under it were vast in proportion.
It was nothing against the validity of a debt to admit that it
was very large.
All through General Logan's career we have seen evidence
of his high appreciation of the importance of affording the
best educational advantages for the masses ; and he has never
omitted an opportunity in the course of his public life to
advocate measures for the increase of popular learning by every
available means. Finally, in 1882, he worked out what he
thought was a practicable system for accomplishing the desired
result, and he formulated his views, which he presented in the
Senate in March. The measure has become known as
" Logan's Bill to appropriate the receipts from internal reve-
nue taxes to educational purposes." It was referred to the
Committee on Education and Labor, of which Senator Blair
is chairman, and up to the present time has not been acted
upon. The full text of the bill is as follows :
'''*^^r^^"^:^-:^
^^^?^^^^
GEif. JOKBf A. LOGAN AT THE BATTLE OF DALLAS.
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 657
to this effect is unnecessary. That '* knowledge is power" is a
truism now denied by none.
What is of so much worth as children, even reckoning on that
very low plane, their simple cash value as prospective laborers ?
A fine climate gives effect to every interest and industry of a
land ; a fertile soil attracts population and enterprise to cultivate
it ; mines afford opportunity for the poor to gather wealth and
scatter it abroad throughout the world. But none of these are
of any more worth than a desert, without hands to improve
them ; and what are hands worth without minds to direct them ?
A hand with an educated brain behind it is worth more than
treble an ignorant one. Give the finest climate earth can show,
the fattest soil the continents lift out of the sea, the richest
mines the mountains contain, the safest harbors that border the
sea or indent the land, and let a people be ignorant of their own
capabilities, or of the resources of Nature and her mighty
agencies, and what are all these worth ? Africa to-day has ten
million square miles of soil as fertile as lies beneath the sun.
She has a hundred millions of people. Yet the little island of
England, with only about sixty thousand square miles and forty
millions of people, produces annually, in a climate almost of the
polar circle, more articles of food and clothing raised directly
from the earth by agricultural labor alone, than all that con-
tinent; and if you count in the manufactures which her
machinery yields, she does the work of ten times the whole
population of Africa. How is she enabled to do this ? Simply
because the educated mind of England can multiply her hands
by a thousandfold. Nature lends her gravitation — even en-
slaves her sun, and harnesses her lightning, so that they afford
hands and feet to run and labor for those people who have
learned how to use such agencies. The same thing is seen
in any enlightened country, or at least where education is
widely diffused. And yet in England less than half the
common people's children are educated in any suitable degree.
It is mind which has accomplished all these wonders; and
minds are found in almost equal numbers in all ranks of society.
The child of the peasant is often as full of genius as the child of
658 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
the prince, with a stronger body and less tendency to habits of
yice or recklessness ; and if he can be found and educated the
nation certainly derives the greatest possible benefits ; and if a
nation is^to be raised to its highest degree of ejBficiency every
particle of its mind must be utilized.
The war between France and Germany affords pertinent illus-
tration of the value of education in a peasantry to increase the
worth of men, considered as mere machines of warfare. Every
German soldier could read and write, and knew the geography
of France. He could calculate almost as well as his officers, and
he knew how to take care of his person and health. Those of
France were nearly half illiterate, and as an army they seemed
little more than a bank of snow before an April wind in compari-
son with the Germans.
The nine millions of children who daily march to the school-
houses of the North, the West, and the South are better as a
defense for the whole nation than a standing army as large as all
the armies of Europe. The quarter of a million of school-teach-
ers who daily drill these children in the school-houses are a better
provision for training the nation in patriotism than all the states-
men and military officers of the Old World. Let every child of
the Nation be sent to a good school, and trained by a proper
method in broad national ideas, and we never need fear either
foreign aggression and domination, or domestic insurrection and
sectional strifes and jealousies. Strength, peace, harmony, pros-
perity, nobility of character, patriotism, virtue, and happiness,
would flow as from a perennial spring in the mountains, to fill
the land forever.
But the benefits of education are not confined to an increase
of material prosperity, and to the means of promoting the public
defense. The physical comfort and general healthfulness of the
whole population are advanced thereby in even a greater ratio
than the interests before named. Can it be reckoned no benefit
to a community that every person possesses sufficient intelligence
to understand the reasons for cleanliness and exercise, the neces-
sity for pure air and good food, and the means of securing all
these ? Are more comfortable and beautiful homes no profit to
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 659
families, and do not all arts which knowledge fosters contribute
to the happiness and power of a people ? In the mere matter of
bodily health it would not be difficult to show that if the whole
of a community could be brought to practice the precepts of
hygiene, which could be readily learned by a child of fourteen
without loss of time for ordinary family duties or for needed rest,
at least two-thirds of all the diseases which now afflict the human
race would be as effectually banished from the earth as reptiles
are from Ireland,
The effect, also, of the general diffusion of education among
the masses of our population in respect to their moral condition
can scarcely be calculated. That evil will ever go side by side
with good in this world, experience leaves us no reason to doubt.
That while by a general school system we are educating those
who will be an honor to themselves and a benefit to society and
the nation we are also to a certain extent educating the vicious,
is true ; but that, on the whole, education tends largely, very
largely, to increase the better element in proportion to the vicious,
is a fact that cannot be denied. To enter fully upon the discus-
sion of this proposition would be out of place here, notwithstand-
ing its great importance in this connection. But it is evident
to every intelligent person that safety in this matter consists in
continued progress. To halt in the race will result in giving
over society and the nation to the control of the vicious. To
education, therefore, must we look for all the elements of national
strength, and the more generally it is diffused and the higher its
grade, in like proportion will our national power be increased.
So that if Congress intends to do anything in this great work that
will be adequate to the wants of the people, it must be done with
a liberal hand, and in a manner that will show manifest justice
to all sections. While ten or fifteen millions may and will do
much good if granted to one section, those who are imposing
heavy burdens upon themselves in other sections to educate their
children will have just grounds to complain that injustice has
been done them.
While Illinois spends 1 per cent, of the assessed value of her
taxable property, and Iowa 1.4 per cent., for school purposes.
660 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Georgia spends but one-tenth of 1 per cent., and North Carolma
but one-fourth of 1 per cent, for this purpose. This difference
cannot, of course, be charged to inability, but, to put it in the
mildest form, it must be charged to neglect, or the want of
appreciation of the value of education. To help the latter, then,
and withhold assistance from the former would have too much
the appearance of rewarding the negligent, who are unwilling
even to do what they can to help themselves, and refusing aid
to those who are burdening themselves to prej^are their children
to be useful members of society and valuable citizens of the
Nation. 1 am as desirous as any one in this Senate to assist
those States that are in the background in this respect, for I am
fully aware they are laboring under difficulties which do not
apply to their sister States, and this is one great reason — in fact, I
may say the chief reason — why I have brought forward this bill.
But I wish the Government to be just in distributing its favors,
and this cannot be done effectually in this matter with much
less than the amount I have proposed. Although money from
this tax hits no more inherent value in it for this purpose than
any other fund, yet there is something pleasing in the idea that
the mighty stream of liquid sin, flowing on in spite of all the
efforts made to check it, and bearing multitudes downward to
its whirlpool of crime and death, will thus be made, by its very
downward pressure, a power to lift as many more from the
depths of ignorance; that the very streams the distillers and
retailers are sending forth to foster vice and crime may be used
as a force to destroy their origin, Just as the maddened waters
of Niagara may be made a force to level the precipice from which
they fall. So far, then, as the use of this particular fund in this
way inspires this feeling in those who encourage education and
temperance, so far, we may truly say, it would be more effectual
than any other.
Men called statesmen are apt to believe that they control the
masses ; but when the masses, whether right or wrong, become
aroused on any question pertaining to government, the men
known as statesmen are as powerless to control them as they are
to direct the storm ; and so the le9,ding men, or statesmen, as
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 661
they are called, join their respective sides and add fury to the
desires of the people. Aristides did not control Athens, nor
Xerxes Persia, in that fullest sense which brought the destinies
of nations into conflict. The common Greeks and the common
Persians, who had in some way learned in their ignorance to
hate and despise each other, made those furious wars possible, if
not necessary. So it will always be. The instincts, as we some-
times call them, — and these are scarcely anything but the trans-
mitted notions and sentiments of one generation accumulating
power in another, — will sway the populace and iniluence the
policy of rulers. They will by their desires force the Government
into unwise measures. If they are selfish, they will compel a self-
ish and perhaps an aggressive policy. If they are vicious, the
Government cannot long maintain a consistent course of justice
and honor. If they are divided by sectional jealousies and
trained to hostile feelings, can there be union of sentiment and
action ?
In our own land to-day the grossly ignorant are numerous
enough to control the affairs of the Nation. They hold the
balance of power, if they could only unite. But while they do
not unite as a class, their influence may do worse than form a
union among themselves ; for any apparent attempt to form a
party of the ignorant would undoubtedly be met by a combina-
tion of the intelligent. Their wishes and desires, their preju-
dices and jealousies, may suggest to demagogues opportunities
to gain selfish ends and plunge us into still greater sectional
strifes. We need, as a Nation so extended, to foster homogene-
ous instruction in our hundred different climates and regions.
The one grand thing to do in every one of these regions, each
larger than most of the nations of the world, is to secure the
uniformity of intelligence and virtue. We need no other.
If our people in the pine woods of Maine or Michigan ; if
those in the mines of the Carolinas and Virginia, in Colorado
and Nevada, in California and Alaska ; if the cultivators of the
farms in Ohio and Dakota, of the plantations of Georgia and
Louisiana; if the herders of the ranches of Texas and New
Mexico,— can all be rendered intelligent enough to see the ex-
662 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN, JOHN A. LOGAN.
oellenoe of virtue aud be made noble enough to practice its
self-restraining laws; if they can be taught wisdom enough to
appreciate the ten thousand advantages of a national Union
embracing a hundred climates and capable of sustaining a myriad
of mutually helpful industries, freely interclianging the products
and acting on each other as mutual forces to stimulate every one
to its highest capacity of rival endeavor, — then we would be
sure of a stable Union and an immortahty of glory.
Is it now easy to see that the education of the young, on one
common plan with one common purpose— the people's children
taught by the people themselves — in schools made by the people
themselves, yet in some noble sense patronized by the Nation
and supervised by the Nation in some proper manner, will aid in
making on this continent a nation such as we hope to be — and
what the foreshadowings of Providence seem to indicate we ought
to be — the one great and mighty Nation of the world ? "We have
the same glorious Constitution. Let us all, from highest to
lowest, from richest to poorest, from blackest to whitest, learn
to read its words as they are written, and then we shall be most
likely to interpret its provisions alike and administer its enact-
ments alike in justice and honor.
We all read the same Bible and claim to practice the same
golden rule. Let us instruct all the youth whom the beneficent
Father gives us, natives of this land or born on other shores, in
the grand principles of morality which it inculcates, and in all
the science which it has fostered. We all inherit from our
mother-land the same invaluable code of common laws and insti-
tutions. Let us, if need be, be careful all to obtain enough
knowledge to read and understand the laws which the Legisla-
tures of the several States shall make and the decisions in accord-
ance with that common law which their courts shall render. We
have received from our ancestors and from the present genera-
tion of philosophic scientists a body of knowledge and wisdom
the worth of which even genius can scarcely estimate. Let that
be given to every child that breathes our atmosphere in substan-
tially the same spelling-book and primer, in schools as good
among the snows of Aroostook as in marts of New York, Boston^
Logan in i*he SEi^Atfi. GBB
5r Charleston ; as free on the shores of Puget Sound as on the
prairies of Illinois, and as well taught in the rice-fields of the
South as on the hills of Connecticut. Then we shall be " one
and inseparable, now and forever."
At the opening of the Forty-eighth Congress, circum-
stances seemed at last to be ripe for the success of the bill to
restore Fitz-John Porter to the army. The Democrats, who
had made this a political issue, had come in with a majority
of seventy in the House of Kepresentatives, while the Senate
was practically a tie. In the latter body, however, the friends
of Porter had gained important accessions in the votes of
Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, who professed to have been
converted by General Grant's article in the North Ameri-
can Review, and Senator Sewell, of New Jersey, representing
Porter's native State. The bill passed the House by a party
vote and came to the Senate in such shape as, in the opinion
of the best lawyers of the country, not only reversed the find-
ings of the court-martial, but granted Porter his pay for aU
the years intervening since his expulsion from the army.
General Logan again took up the cause of the public in
this noted case, and, unawed by the apparent overwhelming
circumstances pointing to the success of Porter's plea, pro-
ceeded to make another extended argument in opposition to
the bill. Again the Capitol was crowded to suffocation by
an assemblage of people eager to hear General Logan's argu-
ment, and they were rewarded by the pleasure of listening to
an address which has become scarcely less famous than his
four days' speech on the same subject in 1880.
The following is a condensed report of his argument, gi^ang
its principal parts in an abridged form :
Mr. President : I know that it is very difl&cult for Senators
to be required at each session of Congress to listen to a protracted
664 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOflll A. LOGAN.
discassion of this question, but I deem it my duty as long as I
hold a place in the Senate, having very strong convictions in
reference to this question, to oppose the consummation proposed
by the Senator from New Jersey [Mr, Sewell], and if Senators
will give me their attention I shall try to discuss this proposition
upon the law and the facts. I think there would be no difficulty
in arriving at a correct conclusion in reference to the guilt or
innocence of this person, who was charged before a court-martial,
if we could divest ourselves of much of what I might term ex-
traneous matter that is constantly thrust into the case.
This seems to be the court of last resort in this case. In
other words, the Congress of the United States is asked by this
bill to take up and review the proceedings of a court-martial,
to examine the evidence given before a Board of Inquiry subse-
quent to the court-martial, and to decide whether or not that
court-martial made a proper decision according to the law and
the facts.
If the court-martial decided correctly, according to the law
and the facts before it, then Congress ought certainly not to place
this man in the army again. If that court-martial decided against
the law and the facts, I do not deny that the power exists in Con-
gress to authorize his nomination to a place in the army. I deny
the power of Congress to review the court-martial ; but that they
have the right to authorize him to be put in the army I do not
deny. When this case was formerly before the Congress of the
United States, there was then a continuing sentence of the court-
martial which prohibited him from holding any office of trust or
profit under the United States. The main question discussed
before the Senate at that time, or the one that engrossed the
mind of the Senate, was whether or not Congress had the power
to review the action of a court-martial and set aside its sentence.
I took the ground then, and maintained it, I believe, by decisions
of the courts from the time decisions were made in this country
in reference to questions of that kind, that Congress did not have
the power. Since that time an application has been made to the
President of the United States to remit so much of the judgment
of the court-martial as prohibited him from holding any office of
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. &65
trust or profit. That has been done. Now the question is,
whether or not the record of the court-martial shall be examined by-
Congress, and Congress decide that that court-martial went beyond
its jurisdiction, beyond the law and the facts, in finding a verdict
of guilty. If Congress comes to the conclusion that it did, then
Congi'ess may by an act give the President of the United States
authority to nominate him again to a position in the army. Now,
what is the point ? There are but two questions : First, What is
the law ? Second, What is the evidence applicable to that law for
this tribunal to examine ? As I said, if much extraneous matter
were laid aside there would be but little difficulty in arriving at
a correct conclusion in this case.
The Senator from New Jersey yesterday, in making his remarks,
might have been saved a great deal of trouble if he had asked for
the first volume of the proceedings of this board of officers. If
the latter part of it had been read to the Senate, it would have
saved him from making his speech. If auy one will examine the
arguments which have been made in his behalf from the time
this case was first presented to Congress down to the present
time, he will find it is a repetition of the argument made and filed
before that board by Fitz-John Porter himself, and all the letters,
orders, documents, and everything that was presented here yes-
terday, are found in connection with his argument before that
board.
I was criticised yesterday by the Senator from New Jersey
because of a report which I made. But before proceeding to that,
if the Senate will excuse me, I desire to state the propositions I
am going to discuss.
It has been attempted in all the arguments made in defense of
Fitz-John Porter to inpress upon the minds of the Senate and
the country maxims that would apply to this case. As read, re-
read, reiterated everywhere, it has been said that in these maxims
it is found that a commanding officer's order is not necessarily to
be obeyed, unless he is present and observing the situation. That
is not the law, and I will show it.
One of the great leading maxims in Napoleon's military expe-
rience— ^you will find it in all his campaigns, and it was a standing
666 BIOGBAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
order to all his corps commanders — was that when the general of
the army was not present to give orders, each corps commander
should march to the sound of the enemy's guns. That was a
general order in all his campaigns. We were told yesterday, and
were told by the board which is considered immaculate by Sen-
ators and by some gentlemen in this country, that Pope was mis-
taken first, as to the road ; second, he was mistaken as to what
was in Porter's front at the time. Pope mistaken ! Why, Mr.
President, all the arguments that have been made in defense of
this man, has been an attempt to try General John Pope, and not
to try the facts in the case of Fitz-John Porter. I desire to reply
now, before I go any further, first, to the Senator's remarks of
yesterday in reference to my report, and then I will come back
and confine myself to the law and the facts in this case.
The Senator from ISI'ew Jersey criticised my report because I
had charged that this was an illegal board, without responsibility,
without the power to try, or to decide, or to swear witnesses, and
he undertook to argue that I had attacked the board, because I
stated these facts in my report. Did I state anything that was
not true ?
But, sh, before proceeding further, I want to say that during
all the time I shall discuss this question — from now until I con-
clude— I am willing to be interrupted, and asked any question on
any law proposition or any of the facts, in order that we may all
understand it and have it made plain.
Did that board have authority to try this case? I say no.
Why ? Where did the President get authority to authorize any
person to administer oaths, who was not a competent oflBcer to
administer oaths? Will some one tell me? Where does the
President get authority to appoint a board to re-examine court-
martial proceedings that have been approved ? I should like
some lawyer to show me the law. Sir, this was attempted when
we discussed this question here before. A Senator got up and
read law to the Senate, and called my attention to the fact that
the law authorized a court of inquiry. That only proved to any
one who had any knowledge of military law that the Senator did
not understand military law. The board of inquiry authorized
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 667
by the statute is a board to inquire into an oflBcer's conduct then
in the army, to see whether his conduct is such that charges
should be preferred against him before a court-martial. That is a
court of inquiry. This was not a court of inquiry. It was a-
board of three officers appointed by the President of the United
States, without any law, without authority, without any justifica-
tion or excuse in law.
As I said before, I say again, if the President wanted to au-
thorize three officers, or a dozen officers, to examine into a question
and report to him, to say what the facts were, so that he might
form an opinion as to his right to pardon a man, that is one
thing ; but when a board examines a case and makes a recom-
mendation that a man should be restored to the army and paid
over $70,000, which was their recommendation (that is, it would
have been that amount to have put him back as they recommended
him to be put back), that is beyond their authority; it is beyond
the scope of the authority of any power that exists in law, and I
defy contradiction from any man — lawyer, judge, or Senator.
Mr. President, any man who will examine this case carefully —
and I may say that I have examined it carefully, without prej-
udice— will come to the conclusion that this board paid little at-
tention whatever to the evidence; they perverted and distorted
it in every possible way. Sir, curious things may strike a board
as well as other people. I should not have said a word about this
board in this debate, if it had not been that it has been brought
forward again as the judgment of a court that we could not
gainsay. I ask any man to read it fully and see if it is not atrial
of McDowell, too. Strange to say, McDowell was then of an
age, or would have been in a few months, to be retired from the
major-generalcy, and Pope was the next ranking officer. Two of
the gentlemen on this board were applicants, one for McDowell's
place, and one for the brigadiership. If one could succeed, both
could ; if one failed, both must fail. That should not affect their
judgment, however, and perhaps did not; but, strange to sa}',
in everything, up to the time that John Pope was appointed and
confirmed, there has been in this case a war upon Pope to de-
stroy him. Of course that board had no mch icleji in view, be-
668 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
cause neither of the two gentlemen who were in the board ex-
pecting the place would do such a thing. They are honorable
gentlemen, and we exonerate them from everything of that kind ;
but it is curious that the attack has always been on Pope. I
presume that will stop now, inasmuch as he has been appointed,
and there will be no further necessity for making war upon him.
Let us go a little into the unwritten history of this matter.
Sir, it was very generally believed that Fitz-John Porter and
George B. McClellan, and others that might be named, formed
a little coterie in the Army of the East. One was to be President ;
what the others were to be, God only knows. McClellan had
been relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac,
and Pope had been put in his place. It was said, too, all through
the campaign, that in every possible way he sneered at Pope,
ridiculed him and his movements.
Mr. President, the Senator who votes that Fitz-John Porter
was not convicted properly and legally, votes that he obeyed that
order, or that it was impossible to obey it ; any one who votes to
relieve this man fi-om the sentence of that court-martial, votes in
the face of all the testimony that was given, even by his own
friends, and votes that the court-martial found him guilty when
he ought to have been found not guilty, when, in fact, the evi-
dence shows that he never attempted to obey the order. The law
says that he must obey it ; that he subjects himself to the death
to obey it. He violated the law, and violated the order ; and yet,
forsooth, you say he is not guilty ! Well, if gentlemen can do
that, it is for them to say, and not for me; but that is the fact,
and there is the law. Under the law and the evidence, the judg-
ment of that court-martial was as righteous a judgment as ever
was given. It was just, it was right, because it was in accordance
with the law, and in accordance with the evidence.
If commanders of divisions and corps are to be permitted to be
judges for themselves, as to whether they will obey an order or
not, then I would not give a straw for all the armies of the
United States. If a corps commander or division commander say
the same, why cannot their colonels and their captains say the
same ? What kind of an army would you have if you gentlemen
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 669
were all division commanders or corps commanders, and were off
some miles, the enemy was approaching, and the commanding
general should send orders to each one of you to concentrate at
daylight to-morrow morning, for the reason that he expected
either to make an attack or to be attacked, and each man should
say, "Well, it is too dark; I will not go until to-morrow morn-
ing," and no one of you started ? If one of you may disobey an
order, all may. Suppose no one starts, and the general is left
there with a small force to fight, the next morning, nobody to
come to his rescue, nobody to obey his orders ; what kind of an
army would you have ?
The truth is he was determined not to fight. He was deter-
mined not to obey that order. He was determined that John
Pope should be whipped that day, which he was, or at least on
the next day he was whipped, but that day was the cause of it.
His troops were so broken up and demoralized that day that
when the fresh troops came in he was not sufficiently strong to
withstand the force that was brought against him. Will it do
for any one to argue here that because a man thinks he has not
force enough to whip an army, that therefore he must not assault
that army if a fight is going on anywhere in connection with that
and another army ? Will any man say that it is good military
discipline, that it is good soldierly quality, that it is the proper
way for an officer to perform his duty ? Would any one say so ?
What difference would it have made to him as a soldier ? Sup-
pose he had gone in there feeling that he would be whipped. He
says in his own dispatch that he thinks Pope's army was being
driven to the rear, that it was retiring. Was it any worse for
him to be retiring than it was for some of the others to be retir-
ing, or to be driven back than another? It is the fate of
war that men shall be whipped. It is the fate of war that
men shall be driven back and pushed forward. If I had a
mind to stop here and quote the history of the different battles
that we all know and are conversant with, so far as historical
accounts are concerned, I could show whei'e small detachments
of troops have saved a great army. Without quoting it, read the
battle of Marengo, where a small force, late, when the day was
apparently lost, came in and won the battle.
670 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
When the Senator from New Jersey was quoting one of the
maxims of Napoleon, I answered it by quoting another, that
troops should always march to the sound of the enemy's guns.
It was because that maxim of Napoleon was not followed out that
Napoleon fell. It was because at the battle of Waterloo one of
his generals did not march to the sound of the enemy's guns that
lost Napoleon that battle and lost him his power. If the maxim
of Napoleon had been followed out, in all probability he would
have been successful on that battle-field as well as he was on others.
During the whole day, as Senators will understand from read-
ing this evidence, the only order he gave that he executed was in
reference to hiding his men in the woods when two little pieces
of artillery at Hampton Cole's house fired a couple of pieces of
railroad iron, as some of the witnesses state ; others say that
there were four shots fired ; others say more, some say two, but
it is immaterial. Suppose there were twenty shots tired, what
was the order from General Porter ? One battery, under Morrell,
replied to it. The evidence shows that the rebel battery was
silenced. What was Porter's order? It was to hide his men in
the woods and deceive the enemy, to play the same game on them
that they would play on him. Morrell reports back, " I put my
troops all in the woods," except — what? "Except Hazlett's bat-
tery." He was told to put that in, too ; but he testifies that he did
not do that, for he wanted to reserve one battery for defense. That
is the character of the orders that Fitz-John Porter gave on the
twenty-ninth.
Mr. President, if this man had been a volunteer soldier he
would not have been permitted to stay in this country. There
is no man who was in the volunteer service — a mere volunteer —
who would ever have had "cheek" enough to come before Con-
gress, or any other body, and ask that this evidence be spread
out before the world, and on it a reversal of his sentence. Sir,
this only shows one of the dangers to the future of this country.
Alas, sir ! once on the bounty of the Government always on the
bounty of the Government, no matter what wrongs they may per-
petrate. See them swarm, now at ^ashin^on, plying their influ-
ence in tliis wnboly cause.
LOGAN IN TflE SENATE. 6*71
Last night when I made the statement that Longstreet's forces
were engaged on the 29th, the Senator from New Jersey denied
it. He said they were not engaged, and that if I could prove
it I would put the chief commander in a very bad position. As
I said then, I was not discussing the chief commander, but dis-
cussing the conduct of Fitz-John Porter. The truth is, the evi-
dence, when taken altogether, shows that the Confederate testi-
mony— at least as to the time of arrival of Longstreet on the
battle-ground — is doubtful ; it disagrees very materially with the
evidence on the other side, showing the position the troops occu-
pied near Groveton and by Lewis' Lane and by the Leachman
House. At the time Fitz-John Porter made his first defense, as
the Senator well knows, he claimed that there were only ten or
fifteen thousand troops on his line that he would have to engage.
Now he claims that there were 25,000. It was immaterial
whether there were 25,000 or 50,000.
Gentlemen -try to excuse this man Porter, with 12,500 men,
according to the reports, from attacking not the same number, or
near the same number, as his own when the flank was exposed,
and it was not a front attack. This is the most astounding thing
CO me I have evei known, that one minute they will insist that
Porter thought there were 10,000 or 15,000 troops in his front
and he was afraid to attack those, and then a great chief will
come up and put the lines square in front and tell you there were
25,000 men there ready to drive Porter right in the front. Then
you read the report of Lee, of Longstreet, of Stuart, of Rosser,
of Hood, of every one of the Confederates — and I have their re-
ports right here — they every one show that the corps of Porter
was on Longstreet's flank, and they show that Longstreet had in
the battle of Groveton from 4 o'clock that evening until 12
o'clock that night, when they were brought back on the road to-
ward Haymarket, over twelve thousand troops engaged with
Pope's command at Groveton which were drawn from his corps ;
and yet they insist that Porter would have had to attack twenty-
five thousand men after he got the 4.30 order.
Sir, you may take this case from one end to the other, and it
has the most singular history of any case that ever occurred dur-
672 BlOGRAfHT OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
ing any war. It shows that this man intended from the first that
Pope should never succeed. He went Just far enough to make a
pretense of obeying orders without obeying them ; just far enough
only to have it understood that he tried in some degree to obey
orders, but in this instance he tried in no degree. He refused to
obey the orders, refused to move forward. Suppose it had been
twelve o'clock at night. I remember a little incident that oc-
curred once during the war, showing what a man may do after
night. At Resaca there was a line of troops — probably the Sen-
ator from Georgia knows the situation of Resaca — opposite forti-
fications in the direction of a bridge that ran across the river. I
suppose the Senator from Georgia remembers the bridge ?
Mr. Brown — Yes, sir.
Mr. Logan — This line ran down to protect the fortifications,
throwing a wing down in the direction of the river. They were
occupied by a few troops — I do not know how many. A brigade
under General Charles Woods, a brother of Judge Woods, of the
Supreme Bench, who was in my command at the time, was
ordered to assault those works at nine o'clock at night. He
moved his brigade in the dark and got under cover of a little
stream, and assaulted them at nine o'clock at night and took the
works. Will a man tell me, when a small brigade can assault
breastworks at nine o'clock at night, when no moon was shining
— for it was a darker night than the one in question — that it is
an excuse for an officer who receives an order to attack at once,
that it is too late for him to attack ? Why was it no{ too late for
Longstreet's forces to attack Pope's forces near Groveton ? Was
it too late for McDowell's troops to be moving that night at
eleven o'clock and twelve o'clock, when these two commanders,
General Wilcox and General Hood, both report that they moved
between eleven and twelve o'clock back on that road in the direc-
tion of Haymarket on the night of the 20th ? Then you tell me
it was too dark for this man to attack ! Was it any worse for
him to attack than it was for the other side ? This reminds me
of one peculiar feature that is always the case in war : a soldier
who commands an army or part of an army, who has full oppor-
tunity to manage his troops, the next morning after a battle, if
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 673
you ask him as to the condition of his troops, will tell you, " They
are cut all to pieces." I have heard it a hundred times: " My
troops have been cut all to pieces." You will hear that from
commanding officers of regiments, of brigades, and of divisions.
But suppose you ask the question, "What do you think is the
condition of the troops on the other side ?" and the reply will be,
" Cut all to pieces." But he does not think of that ; he only
thinks of his own troops ; he does not think of the condition of
the other side.
In conclusion, I want to ask Senators on both sides of this
chamber, and I want some one to tell, why it is that when this
case comes up it seenls to be decided on political grounds. What
is there in this case of politics? It is a mere question as to
whether this man was properly convicted or improperly convicted.
It is not a question that politics should enter into at all. It is
the case of a man who was convicted during the war, while a
great many of you gentlemen were down South organizing your
courts-martial and trying your own officers if they misbehaved.
You tried them according to the laws which you considered ruled
and governed your army at that time. We tried ours on our side
according to the rules which governed our army at that time, and
govern it now.
Is it possible that history is going to record the fact with
this man as guilty as he was of violating the orders sent to him,
each and every one, upon which he was convicted, that our
friends, because they differ with us in politics, because this man
is of the politics they are, are going to decide, without reference
to the facts and without reference to the law, the judgment of
this court-martial should be reconsidered, set aside, and this man
be put back in the army? There is no other ground on which
you can do it. It is a prejudice against the court, against the
parties at the time, and nothing else. I hope that does not exist ;
I hope that will not exist any longer. It should not.
I do not think it comes with the best grace for men who tried
their own disobedient officers in their own way, to use their power
and influence to restore ofiBcers whom we dismissed from our
service in the army, in order to disgrace the courts which con-
674 BIOGRAPHY OP GEl^. JOHN A. LOGAN.
victed them and the President who signed the warrants. I do
not think it is policy for men to come here and undertake to
reverse that which was done according to fact and according to
law. Let those men who were derelict in duty on our side, whom
we dealt with, go. They are of no service to you and none to us.
They are of no more service to the country. They may serve
themselves, but no one else.
With the views I entertain concerning this case, believing as I
do that this man disobeyed lawful orders; that he disobeyed
those orders without reference to the effect it would have upon
the people of the United States ; that he did it for the purpose
of having Pope relieved and some one else put in his place who
would be more congenial to him [Porter] — beheving as I do
that this man, out of his prejudice against McDowell, urged
Patterson not to fight Johnston, which lost the first battle of
Bull Eun ; that he refused to obey the first order he received
from Pope to move to the field, refused to obey both orders that
he received to rush forward and attack — believing all these facts
to be completely proven by the evidence, and knowing the law
to be what it is, authorizing the court to inflict the penalty of
death, and when they inflicted the milder penalty — believing
that they let this man off with a much less penalty than would
have been adjudged had he been tried by a court-martial in any
foreign country — with all these facts before me, with the knowl-
edge I had of the generosity of President Lincoln, with the
knowledge I had of the big-heartedness of General Garfield, with
the knowledge I had of General Hunter, with" the knowledge I
had of the other officers who sat upon the court-martial, before I
would give a vote to restore this man to the army and let him
live the balance of his days on the bounty of the tax-payers of
this country, I would go across the Potomac River and kneel
down by that tomb on which is inscribed : " Here sleep the un-
known dead; " I would go among those little white head-stones
that mark the place where those boys sleep who fell on the
battle-field of Groveton on the 29th of August, and I would
there, in the presence of those whitening bones, on my knees,
pray to Almighty God to forgive me for the wrong that I am
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 675
about to do to the dead who have gone, and the wrong I am
about to inflict on this country, on this law, and on the facts by
the restoration of this man to his place as an officer of the array.
Sir, I would stand in the rays of the majestic king of day, and
appeal to the sainted spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who has gone
before us, and say : " Inasmuch as in examining this case you
thought this man guilty and signed the order, and when he ap-
pealed to you again on the re-examination of this case you
decline to take any action in it, before giving this vote for his
restoration to the army, I appeal to you to take my hand and
help me through this trouble, and forgive me for perpetrating
the wrong against your good name."
Sir, I would turn again and recount the wrongs that have
been tried to be perpetrated on the life and character of Garfield
in reference to his views on this question. I would turn to him
in his silent tomb, and say : ''While you were in life and health,
and sound in judgment, you gave this verdict, and by a re-
examination of the whole record you prepared yourself again to
defend that which you had done, but I, on account of the pres-
sure, on account of what has been said by certain military men,
am going out to do this great wrong for their sake. They are
living, you are dead. 0 kind and generous spirit, forgive me
that, in my weakness. I do your judgment, your conscience,
and fair name a great wrong.
In spite of the fact that General Logan's poverty during
his career has been patent proof of bis unblemished integrity,
it remained for him, after more than thirty years of his public
life had elapsed, to be assailed as a "land-grabber" in the
columns of the Democratic press of the country. As in the
case of the charge of disloyalty at the beginning of the war,
his complete refutation of the accusation was swift and all-
sufficient. On the 4th of July, 1884, he rose in his place in
the Senate and proceeded to put upon the Becord his rebuke
of the slander, which so completely demolished his accusers,
676 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
that the matter has not been referred to in the columns of the
opposition newspapers since that date. He said :
Mr. President, I desire this morning to do that which I seldom
do. It is to call the attention of the Senate to a matter personal
to myself. I have prepared a statement which I desire to have
the privilege of making now.
Mr. President, I deem it due to my friends that I call attention
to certain statements which I find copied in the public press, as
well as in the Congressio7ial Record of the 27th of June.
First. I am set dowu in a list of what are termed " land-grab-
bers," as having in some mysterious way accumulated the vast
amount of 80,000 acres of land. This statement is utterly with-
out foundation in fact. The New York Herald of the 29th of
June adds, 30,000 head of cattle. I wish this were true, but
there is no foundation for the statement. I would take no notice
of this, however, were it not for the charge that follows.
Second. The person who made the statement, after finding that
it was untrue, instead of doing justice to one against whom he
might, by his erroneous statements, have done an injury, pro-
ceeded to put another false statement on record, as follows :
"I might have said to the deluded soldiers of this land, 'What
do you think of a great Senator who, in his greed to absorb the
territory which belongs to the actual settler, in a land that was
made for independent freeholders and small farmers — what do you
think of a man who poses as a statesman and a patriot, as the
friend par excellence of the soldier, and who, under the cover
of his brother-in-law, went to New Mexico and tried to pre-empt
the most valuable land lying along her streams, and was only
estopped by the public officer finding out that it belonged to
another class which he professes the utmost friendship for, and
who from his manner and appearance rumor says has their blood
in his veins, tried to steal from his own kith and kin hundreds of
thousands of acres of land [great laughter and applause on the
Democratic side], taking from the unfortunate savage who was
unable to protect himself until an honest Secretary of the Inte-
rior went there with the surveyor and took back the land for the
Zunis.' " [Renewed laughter and applause.]
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 677
Mr. President, this statement is, so far as I am concerned, or
any one else of whom I have any knowledge, maliciously false.
Sir, what are the facts out of which this attack has been made ?
Captain Lawton, Major Tucker, and Mr. Stout located claims at
Nutria Springs, in New Mexico, not, however, until after ascer-
taining from the General Land Office that the land was subject
to location, being outside of the Indian reservation, and being
some five miles from the Indian line, and some twenty-five or
thirty miles from the town of Zuni. So it will be seen that the
" hundreds of thousands of acres of land " that this man says
I was " stealing from the Indians " resolves itself into three
homesteads or "desert-act" claims located by two army officers
and one citizen on public land open to such entry, with which
location, however, I had nothing to do.
Mr. President, in order to prove every statement that I have
made to be true, I will first read the letter of the Commissioner
of the General Land Office, of date December 7th, 1882, which
shows that this land was subject to location and entry as public
land at the time it was so located, and if not, that the location
would have been subject to cancellation. Any one who will
examine the numbers will find that those mentioned as subject
to entry are entirely outside of the reservation, and cover the
ones taken by the persons mentioned.
I ask the Secretary to read the letter of the Commissioner of
the General Land Office, which was sent to the land office at
Santa Fe prior to these locations.
The President pro tempore — The letter will be read if there
be no objection.
The Chief Clerk read as follows :
"Depaetment of the Interior, General Land Office,
" Washington, D. C, December 7, 1883.
" Gentlemen : I am in receipt of your letter of November 23d,
1882, asking whether townships 12 north of ranges 16 and 17
west are within the reservation for the Zuni Indians, as the same
are unsurveyed, and you have several applications for desert-land
entries in said townships.
*' In reply you are informed that as near as can be ascertained
from our records township 12 north of range 16 west is outside.
678 felOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
while of township 12 north of range 17 west probably only sec-
tions 25, 26, 33, and 36 are within the reservation.
" When said townships are surveyed, the reservation may be
found to embrace more of the land than that mentioned ; and
if any desert-land entries are found to have been located within
the reservation, they will be held for cancellation.
" Very respectfully, N. C. McFarland,
" Commissioner.
" Register and Receiver^ Santa Fe, N. Mex."
Mr. Logan — I will now call attention to a letter of Major
Tucker, giving the facts in connection with the location of the
lands mentioned by him and his associates :
"Pay Depaetment, United States Aemt,
Santa Fe, N, Mex., May 3, 1883.
" Dear Sir : The inclosed copy of an order from the Commis-
sioner of General Land Office to the Surveyor-General of New
Mexico indicates that there is some disposition to interfere with
and change the location of the Zuni reservation, surveyed under
an Executive order of President Hayes.
*' I desire to call your attention to the fact that lands in town-
ships 12 north, range 16 west, and 12 north, range 17 west, from
headwaters of the Nutria in section 8, township 12 north, range
16 west, following the course of the Nutria to the Zuni reserva-
tion line to the southwest, in township 12 north, range 17 west,
were located by myself and associates, and the laws complied
with, the money paid with the usual certificates of location in our
possession, the land at the time being Government land, as
shown by the Land Department maps, and subject to such loca-
tions and entry. This laiid was entered in good faith, known
not to be on the Zuni reservation by all the officers of the Land
Department, and also known to the agent for the Pueblo
Indians. In the name and for those having made said locations
and entries, I respectfully protest against any action that would
be calculated to interfere with our said rights acquired under the
law. Soon after these entries were made, an officious person, who
thinks he has the Indian interests at heart, commenced making
a disturbance in reference to these entries, and procured an
attack to be made upon Senator Logan, charging him with
having in violation of law entered this property, when in fact he
had not done so, but had stated to myself and others that the
land was subject to location and entry.
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 679
" I desire to call your attention to the following proposition :
"1. The Zuni Indians, as well as all the other Pueblo Indians
of New Mexico, were citizens of Mexico, capable of holding land
in their own right, the Zunis having a grant of land from
the Mexican Government, which was confirmed to them by
the United States Government under the treaty with Mexico ;
they are citizens of the United States, and have so been held by
the courts. This being the case, the right of President Hayes to
^ve to them the land of the Government by an Executive order
is a question that might well be considered.
" 2. The grant, as well as the land claimed to be set apart for
them by President Hayes, is well watered, the Nutria Eiver,
formed by different springs, running entirely through the land
given to them by President Haves' order; also, the Eio Piscado
running entirely through the Zuni Valley and through their
grant. To now extend by an Executive order the reservation
set aside by the Hayes 'order' so as to compel a survey on a
straight line or any other line to include the Nutria Spring
within their reservation, would take every drop of water in the
two valleys, totally depriving every other section of Government
land in that locality of any water whatever, rendering a large
body of land entirely useless, and depriving the Government of
any disposition of the same.
" These entries in no wise affect the interests of the Indians, and
we cannot see why the rights of other people should be disturbed
merely to satisfy the wailings of some disappointed persons, who
did not get the land themselves, and now wish to put the Indians
forward to do an injury to others merely to gratify their own
vindictive feelings.
"1 am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
''W. F. TucKEE, Jr.,
"United States Army.
"Hon. H. M. Teller, Secretary Interior Department, Washing-
ton, D. cr
I will next call the attention of the Senate to a letter of Cap-
tain Lawton, giving a full statement of the facts in connection
with his location :
" Saitta Fe, May 19, 1883.
" Sir : In view of an article recently published in the Chicago
Inter-Ocean, attacking ^ou personally, and charging you with
complicity in a combination to defraud the Zuni Indians of cer-
tain lands, etc., and repeated in different forms by other papers
throughout the country, I desire to submit for such use as you
680 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
may wish to make of it the facts concerning the subject to the
charg-^s above mentioned. With reference to the location of the
land, in the first instance^ I have only to say that all the facts
can be ascertained at the office of the register of the land office
in this city. As there is no allegation that you have made any
entry, little need be said on that point. I was the first to see
the land and to suggest its location, and took active steps toward
completing the entries. I will simply say that in making the
location every precaution was taken to prevent injustice being-
done the Zunis or other parties. The land was not on the
reservation, is not shown on the reservation by any map ever
issued by the Land or Indian Department. The land had been
surveyed regularly by the United States surveyor, platted, and
the plats were on file in the office of the register, and the land
was subject to entry by any citizen under the laws. At the time
of making the application for the land, the existence of the
Executive order of President Hayes was unknown to me. After-
ward I procured a copy of said order, went with it to the Land
Office, and suspended my application until a decision from the
Land Department at Washington could be made. In due time
the decision was returned, and it was to the efiect that the land
in question was subject to entry. I was informed by the register
that there were other applicants for the land, that he had held
my application as long as he could, and I must then decide
whether I would locate or not; if I did not, he would accept the
next applicant. As to the question of stock range or ranch, I
have to say, being aware of the profitableness of stock-raising,
properly conducted, I conceived the idea that if we (Major Tuck-
er, Mr. Stout, and myself, who had located on the Nutria),
could agree we might induce parties with capital to take an
interest in our place and stock a ranch for us.
" The matter was' first broached by me and discussed with Major
Tucker, who, while he was not sanguine, was not averse to the
proposition. The first knowledge, I think, you had that such
an idea was contemplated was a letter I wrote you this sjDring,
representing the case to you and asking your interest and influ-
ence to procure capital, etc. To this letter I received no reply,
but believing the idea feasible, I arranged to employ Mr. Samuel
Collins, a stockman, an old ranch manager, then in charge of a
ranch in Lincoln County, to visit our location, examine it with a
view to its capacity for stock, and to make a report.
*' After consulting Major Tucker he agreed to share the ex-
penses with me, and Mr. Collins was employed for one month for
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 681
this purpose. After completing his examination he returned to
Santa Fe, was taken sick, and as a result was still here when you
arrived, up to which time I am sure you knew nothing whatever
of the existence of such a person — certainly not from me.
" There is not nor has there been any company or organization
for the purpose of buying or owning land, raising stock, or start-
ing a ranch on the Nutria, in which you or any other person is
or was interested.
" My entry of land on the Nutria was made in good faith for my-
self, and no other person has any interest in my locations. No
money has been spent, work done, or other steps taken toward
locating a ranch on the property in question other than I have
stated. And any and all statements to the contrary, or that
there is or has been a combination either to secure land or start
a ranch for your benefit, or for the benefit of any person
other than those appearing on the record of the land office, is
untrue.
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"H. W. Lawton,
" Captain Fourth Cavalry.
" General John A. Logan.'''
I will now call attention to the letter of Colonel James Steven-
son, of the United States Geological Survey, who knows more
about the Indians mentioned and their lands than any person of
my acquaintance. He has investigated this question at the re-
quest of the Secretary of the Interior :
"Washington, D. C, June 30, 1884.
" Deae Sib : Having had my attention called to statements in
the Congressional Record of a recent date, indirectly charging
you with fi-audulently attempting to. deprive the Zuni Indians of
New Mexico of their lands, I beg to say that I am familiar with
the facts and circumstances, from a thorough investigation of the
subject made at the request of the honorable Secretary of the In-
terior, and take pleasure in stating that the allegations thus made
are grossly unjust to you, as well as Major Tucker and his asso-
ciates, and wholly without foundation.
" Very respectfully yours,
"James Stevenson.
" Hon. John A. Logajv, United States Senate'^
I now call attention to letter of July 2, 188-i, written by the
682 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
Secretary Of the Interior to myself, which gives all the facts, and
shows that not only these locations were legal and proper, but
that the Executive order extending the '*Zuni" reservation over
these locations was made under a misunderstanding of the facts
in the premises, and that the whole statement or accusation against
any one having committed any wrong is utterly false :
"Depaktment of the Interior,
" Washington, July 2, 1884.
*' Dear Sir : In reply to your verbal inquiries concerning the
Executive order of May 1, 1883, extending the Zuni reservation,
allow me to say that the reservation of the Zuni Indians was
established by Executive order dated March 16, 1877. An order
of this character does not of course give the Indians title to the
lands ; it only withdi'aws the lands included within the reserva-
tion from the operation of the settlement laws.
" On April 28, J883, it was reported from the Indian Office that
in draughting the Executive order establishing the said reserva-
tion there had been an error leaving out of the reservation a large
spring that was not only desirable, but necessary, for the use of
the Indians. I therefore recjuested the President to modify the
order so as to include withm the lands of the reservation said
spring. I was verbally informed that certain army officers had
made locations under the Desert-land Act of lands in the vicinity
of the spring that would be included in the reservation by the
terms of the new order, but that they had expressed a willingness
to surrender their claims if the Government desired to have the
lands for the Indians. I subsequently understood that Major
Tucker was one of the officers who had made filing under said
act. Major Tucker soon after informed me that the Indians did
not use the waters of the spring, and did not need either the
water or the land.
"On the 1st of February, 1884, 1 requested Mr. James Stevenson,
of the Geological Bureau, who is very familiar with the reserva-
tion and the surrounding country, to make an examination of
the said spring and the amount of water on the reservation, and
to report to me. In April last he made his report, by which it
appears that the Indians on the reservation have made no use of
the water of the spring mentioned, and have not occupied, either
before or since, the lands included in the new lines of the reser-
vation.
" There is not the slightest evidence that any wrong was intended
LOGAN IN THE SENATE. 683
or done by the parties to the entries above referred to, or any law
violated. The land was public land at the time these entries
were made, and as such was open to entry by the public. The
gentlemen who made the entries were qualified to enter such
lands, and had a perfect right to do so, and they neither violated
law nor the rights of any parties whatever in so doing. I asked
the Executive order extending this reservation without under-
standing all the facts at the time. It gives me pleasure to make
this statement in view of the allegations to the contrary which
have been made. Very respectfully,
" H. M. Tellek, Secretary.
'^ Hon. John A. Logan, United States Senate Chamber."
When Major Tucker and his associates, as well as myself, were
attacked through the newspapers, and charged with interfering
with the rights of the Indians and doing a great wrong, I defended
them in a letter through the public press and otherwise as having
violated no law, and as having committed no fraud on the Indians
or any one els6. In that defense I asked the question, " If a
soldier like Captain Law ton could not locate a homestead (or
pre-emption, or whatever the location was) within the distance
he had located from an Indian reservation, to tell me how many
miles a soldier would have to go away from a reservation in order
to comply with the law." This I did in their behalf. I now stand
by what I did then. If this be a crime or a fraud, my enemies
may make the most of it.
These men are all three honorable men. Captain Lawton was
a gallant soldier from Indiana ; he served all through the war
with great credit to himself and honor to his country. Major
Tucker is my son-in-law. He is a gentleman, and a man who
would not wrong any one. I presume the wrong in me is that
Major Tucker is a part of my family ; and although he is innocent
of any wrong in the premises, a baseless excuse was made to assail
me through him. If the object was to draw me into his defense,
it has succeeded; and when any one thinks I have not manhood
enough to defend openly any of my family or friends when
wrongfully assailed, he mistakes me.
This, sir, is a full answer to this false, unprovoked, and mali-
cious slander, which I place on record where all may have access
to it.
CHAPTER IX.
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET.
The uncertainty prior to the Convention. — No anti- Convention canvass. —
Illinois' spontaneous support of Logan. — Senator Cullom nominates
Logan. — His name received with tremendous applause. — Shown to hold
the balance of power upon the first ballot.— He withdraws in favor of Mr.
Blaine.— Urged to take the Vice-Presidency.— He leaves the matter to the
Convention. — Senator Plumb, of Kansas, places him in nomination.—
The unanimous choice of the delegates, — The enthusiasm aroused in the
country. — The ratification meeting at Washington. — He is oflScially noti-
fied.—His remarks on that occasion.— Logan's letter of acceptance, — A
ringing document. — Its full text. — His reception since the nomination in
Maine, Ohio, New York, and elsewhere. — He visits Mr. Blaine.— Goes
to the re -union of the Grand Army of the Kepublic at Minneapolis. —
Addresses briefly 10,000 people at the Chatauqua Assembly.— Grand
demonstration at Chicago. — Logan addressing the people,— On the high
tide of popularity.
"T~VT-HEN the roll of States was called for the presentation
VV of candidates at the Republican National Convention
which assembled at Chicago, June 3d, 1884, the State of Illi-
nois put in nomination General John A. Logan for the Presi-
dency. Prior to the assembling of the Convention the public
mind had been in a state of uncertainty — in remarkable vari-
ance from the usual condition of things before a Presidential
contest. The situation was in strong contrast with that of four
years previous. There was no sharp preliminary contest for
securing pledged delegates in the country generally. Indeed,
aside from the State of New York, there was nowhere an
ante-convention-canvass where the lines were sharply drawn
between the adherents of rival aspirants for the nomination.
It is doubtful if such a neutral attitude upon the question of
preference within any political party for the highest office in
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 685
its gift had existed before in the history of the Kepublic. In
fact, the bitterness which had been generated by the fierce
struggle within the organization in 1880, had not been without
its lesson, and Republican leaders wisely sought in 1884, by a
systematic avoidance of an acrimonious canvass, to escape
from the inevitable results which must follow the defeat or
success of any candidate who has been made the representative
of a clearly defined faction.
In consonance with the temperate position of the party
leaders everywhere, the advocates of General Logan's nomina-
tion desisted from organized effort in his behalf prior to th©
Convention, in any part of the country, save within the bound-
aries of his own State. Indeed, even here no aggressive cam-
pain was necessary, because his endorsement by the people was
spontaneous. '
His availability was widely discussed, however, and it was
urged in his behalf, that his ripe experience in statesmanship,
his popularity with the military class of the West, as the
beau-ideal of the volunteer soldier, his alliance with the Meth-
odist Church and his Irish origin, embraced elements which
would make him exceptionally strong with the people of the
country at large. In addition to these points advanced in his
favor, there remained his spotless reputation for personal in-
tegrity, which had never been successfully assailed throughout
his long public career.
After the organization of the Convention and the adoption
of a platform, nominations were declared to be in order. The
State of Connecticut presented the name of General Joseph
E. Hawley, after which Illinois was the next State to respond.
Senator Shelby M. Cullom acted as spokesman for the State,
and when he arose to nominate General Logan, he was received
with a whirlwind of applause. When he proceeded through
bis preliminary reoi^rks up to the mention of Logan's name.
686 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
the entire audience of 15,000 persons fairly shook the building
with the tremendous response of cheers, showing the hold
which he had upon the hearts of the people. When the cheer-
ing subsided, after being renewed again and again, the speaker
resumed :
A native of the State which he represents in the council of
the nation, reared among the youth of a section where every
element of manhood is early brought into play, he is eminently
a man of the people. [Applause.] The safety, the permanency,
and the prosperity of the nation depend upon the courage, the
integrity, and the loyalty of its citizens. When yonder starry
flag was assailed by enemies in arms, when the integrity of the
Union was imperiled by an organized treason, when the storm
of war threatened the very life of this nation, this gallant son of
the Prairie State resigned his seat in the Congress of the United
States, returned to his home, and was the first of our citizens to
raise a regiment and to march to the front in defense of his
country. [Applause.] Like Douglas, he believed that in time
of war men must be either patriots or traitors, and he threw his
mighty influence on the side of the Union, and Illinois made a
record second to none in the history of States in the struggle to
preserve this Government. [Applause.] His history is the
record of the battles of Belmont, of Donelson, of Shiloh, of
Vicksburg, of Lookout Mountain, of Atlanta, and of the famous
march to the sea. [Great applause.] I repeat again, Mr. Chair-
man and fellow-citizens [applause], he never lost a battle in all
the war. [Applause.] When there was fighting to be done he
did not wait for others, nor did he fail to obey orders when they
were received. His plume — the white plume of Henry of
Navarre — was always to be seen at the point where the battle
raged the hottest. [Applause.] During the long struggle of
four years he commanded under the authority of the Govern-
ment, first a regiment, then a brigade, then a division, then an
army corps, and finally an army.^ He remained in the service
until the war closed, when, at the head of his army, with the
scars of battle upon him, he marched into the capital of the
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 687
nation, and with the brave men whom he had led on a hundred
hard-fought fields, was mustered out of the service under the
very shadow of the Capitol building which he had left four years
before, as a member of Congress, to go and fight the battles of
his country. When the war was over and genial peace victori-
ously returned, he was again invited by his fellow-citizens to
take his place in the councils of the nation. In a service of
twenty years in both houses of Congress, he has shown himself
to be no less able and distinguished as a citizen than he was
renowned as a soldier. Conservative in the advocacy of meas-
ures involving the public welfare, ready and eloquent in debate,
fearless — yes, I repeat again, fearless — in defense of the rights of
the weak against the oppressions of the strong, he stands to-day
closer to the great mass of the people of this country than almost
any other man now engaging public attention. [Applause.]
No man has done more in defense of these principles which
have given life and spirit and victory to the Eepublican party
than has John A. Logan, of Illinois. [Applause.] In all that
goes to make up a brilliant military and civil career, and to com-
mend a man to the favor of the people, he whose name we have
presented here to-night has shown himself to be the peer of the
best.
General Prentiss seconded the nomination of General Logan
in a brief but telling speech, and the roll-call was then re-
sumed.
After the other candidates had been named the Convention
adjourned that night without a ballot, opening the fourth and
last day's session at 11 :20 o'clock a. m. the next day. The result
of the first ballot showed that General Logan held the balance
of power in the Convention. The total number of votes was
820. Mr. Blaine received 334i ; Mr. Arthur, 278 ; Mr. Ed-
monds, 93 ; General Logan, 63^ ; Senator Sherman, 30 ; Gen-
eral Hawley, 13 ; Secretary Lincoln, 4, and General W. T.
Sherman, 2. There was one vote not cast in the Alabama
delegation, and another absent in the Louisiana delegation.
688 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
The second and third ballots exhibited a steady increase for
Mr. Blaine.
General Logan was at his home in Washington, receiving
hj telegraph the results, from time to time, of the proceedings
at Chicago, and upon the announcement of the third ballot
instantly came to the conclusion that his duty as a Eepublican
dictated that he should yield to the evident wish of those
States of the Union to whom his party must look for a
majority, and he therefore withdrew in favor of Mr. Blaine,
making the latter's nomination on the next ballot a foregone
conclusion.
In carrying out his decision, lie wired the following dispatch,
to be read to his friends at the Convention :
Washington, D. C, June 6, 1884.
To Senator Cullom, Convention Hall, Chicago, III.:
The Eepublicans of the States that must be relied upon to
elect the President having shown a preference for Mr. Blaine, I
deem it my duty not to stand in the way of the people's choice,
and recommend my friends to assist in his nomination.
JoHi^ A. Logan-.
The announcement of its contents by Senator Cullom, at
once demonstrated the fact that the next ballot would be a
mere formality, and that in point of fact the battle was de-
cided by this coup d'etat on the part of Logan. The latter
took the step he did with that instantaneous decision which
has characterized his career in every emergency, not because
he wished to dictate to the Convention its nominee, but be-
cause he regarded it best for the interests of his party, as
shown in his dispatch. After the act was done he had no
regrets, and dismissed without a pang whatever ambition he
may have cherished for the position of the greatest hc>nor in
the Nation.
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 689
Immediately after the nomination of the candidate for Pres-
ident, dispatches began to pour in upon General Logan from
all parts of the country, urging him to accept the second place
upon the ticket. To these overtures he made no response, not
wishing to trammel the action of his friends or of the Conven-
tion. Finally, in reply to persistent and repeated messages,
he sent the following :
Washikgtgn, D. C„ June 6th,
7.30, p. M.
A. M. Jones,
Grand Pacific, Chicago.
The Convention must do what they think best under the cir-
cumstances.
John A. Logan.
From that moment there was no doubt of the result. The
enthusiasm for him was unanimous and irresistible.
When the Convention re-assembled in the evening, it was
well understood that no candidate for Vice-President would
stand a moment before him. Senator Plumb, of Kansas, took
the stand and proceeded to place him in nomination in the
following language :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention :
This Convention has already discharged two of the most serious
obHgations which rested upon it — the adoption of a platform
and the nomination of a candidate for the Presidency. The plat-
form is one upon which all good Eepublicans and all good citizens
can unite, and of which they can well be proud. The candidate
for the Presidency needs no eulogium from me, and I can also
say for him that he can meet any man in the Democratic party,
whether that man be dead or alive. Upon that statement it
might seem a matter of comparative indifference as to who should
fill the second place; but, Mr. President and gentlemen, there
is such a thing as proportion. Having nominated a statesman
690 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
of approved reputation, a man of whom we are all proud, we owe
it to the party to nominate the best and most available man we
have for the second place.
Mr, President, this is the first time in the history of the
Eepublican party since the war when the man who is to fill the
first place is not a soldier. There are a million men yet living
who served their country in the late war. And now, Mr. Presi-
dent, twenty years after the lapse of that war they are bound
together by ties as strong as they ever were while serving under
arms, and the great brotherhood of the soldiers of the United
States is one of the most important factors in the social and
political life of the American Republic. It is due not as a matter
of availability, but as a matter of just recognition to that great
body of soldiery who made the Eepublican party possible, that a
fit representative of theirs should have the second place upon the
team — a man who, wise within himself, has not only the qualities
of a soldier, but also the qualities of a statesman — because the
American people are becoming more considerate of the second
place upon the national ticket, and it is a matter of grave concern
that the man to be chosen shall be fit to step into the shoes of
the man in the first place.
Mr. President, as I said, if it were only a question of electing
a. ticket we might nominate anybody. But it is more than that.
It is not only a question of carrying and electing a President and
Vice-President, but it is a question of the election of a majority
of the House of Representatives in Congress. It is a question of
rehabilitating States where the Legislatures have been lost, and
consequently Representatives in the Senate have been equally
lost. You want especially to strengthen this ticket, if so it may
be, by adding to it a man who has his representatives in all por-
tions of this broad land, in every township, in every school district,
in every Representative district, and in every county, in order
that the ticket may be carried to the farthest confines of the Re-
public, and its remotest places, with that good-will and recog-
nition which will make sure of a full vote.
"We have come to that point since the war when the kindly
feeling growing out of association has come to be a power, and
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 691
out of that kindly feeling has grown the organization of the
Grand Array of the Eepublie, which has now in its communion
more than three-fourths of the men who lately wore the blue.
They are Eepublicans because the Kepublican party is true to
them, to their interests, and to all those things for which they
fought and sacrificed ; and it is only just and proper that, in
making tickets and in making platforms, we should recognize
that great body of honorable and self-sacrificing men.
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, in presenting to you a candi-
date, I shall present one to you who I believe fills all the qualifi-
cations necessary for even the first place upon this ticket ; a man
whose military and civil record will not be obscured by even so
brilliant a one as that of the head of the ticket. That is the
kind of a man that we want — a man tried in war and in peace,
a man who has in every capacity in which he has been tried so
acted that to-day his name and fame are a part of the proud heri-
tage of the American people. By the terms of your resolution
you have abridged that which I would say, but it is enough for
me to say that the man whom I present for your consideration,
believing that he will add strength to the ticket, and believing
that he will justify the words I have spoken, is General John
A. Logan, of Illinois.
His reputation is no more the property of Illinois than it is
of Kansas ; but there are 75,000 ex-soldiers of the late war upon
the prairies of Kansas who, with one accord, when they hear of
the nomination of John A. Logan, will rise up and endorse it
and ratify it. I know Illinois begrudges him to the country ;
like Hosea Bigelow's wife, they want him for home consumption.
But, Mr. President, it is a command which we have a right to lay
upon them, and I know that in Illinois, with that command upon
them, they will do as General Logan would do himself. He obeys
the duty and obligation of party, the command of the party and
country ; and, in fact, he never disobeyed but one order, and that
was when he disobeyed an order not to fight a battle.
Therefore, in behalf of the ex-soldiers of the Union, in behalf
of the State of Kansas, by whom I am commissioned for this
purpose, and in behalf generally of the great body of the Repub-
•692 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
ilican party of the Union who admire and esteem this man, I
Tpresent his name for your consideration, and hope that he may
a-eceive the nomination at your hands.
The nomination was seconded by half a dozen or more of
the most prominent men in the great gathering.
Upon the call of the roll he received 779 votes, after which
the nomination was made unanimous.
That night General Logan sent the following dispatch :
Washington, D. C, June 6, 1884.
Hon. James G. Blaine, Augusta, Me.
I most heartily congratulate you on your nomination. You
will be elected. Your friend,
John a. Logan.
To which Mr. Blaine responded :
General John A. Logan, Washington, D. G.
I am proud and honored in being associated with you in the
National campaign.
James G. Blaine.
General Logan's nomination was received with an unpre-
cedented outburst of enthusiasm all over the country. It was
instinctively felt that the Eepublican party, contrary to the
usual custom, did not this year propose to drive a tandem
team, but had selected leaders who would move abreast in
the great contest. The press of the country united in sounding
his praises as soldier, statesman, and a " man of the people."
The Illinois association at Washington took occasion in a
formal manner to express its satisfaction. The soldiers and
sailors of the late war also made an appropriate demonstra-
tion, tendering a serenade to General Logan, on which occasion
addresses were made by several of the most prominent public
men at the National Capital. At the grand ratification
meeting held in Washington, on the 20th of June, at which
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 693
Senator Sherman, Senator Hawley, and Congressmen Milliken
of Maine, Miller of Pennsylvania, Horr of Michigan, Smalls,
O'Hara, Goff, Senator Frye, Senator Harrison, and others
spoke. General Logan received a large share of attention from
the orators of the evening.
The committee appointed at the Chicago Convention, com-
posed of one delegate from each State and Territory of the
Union, charged with the duty of notifying the candidates
officially of the action of the party, waited upon General
Logan on the 24th of June. The chairman. General Hender-
son, of Missouri, read the following notification :
Senator Logan, the gentlemen present constitute a committee
of the Eepublican Convention, recently assembled at Chicago,
charged with the duty of communicating to you the formal no-
tice of your nomination by that Convention as a candidate for
Vice-President of the United States. You are not unaware of
the fact that your name was presented to the Convention and
urged by a large number of the delegates as a candidate for
President. So soon, however, as it became apparent that Mr.
Blaine, your colleague on the ticket, was the choice of the party
for that high office, your friends, with those of other competitors,
promptly yielded their individual preferences to the manifest
wish of the majority. In tendering you this nomination we are
able to assure you it was made without opposition, and with an
enthusiasm seldom witnessed in the history of nominating con-
ventions.
We are gratified to know that in a career of great usefulness
and distinction you have most efficiently aided in the enactment
of those measures of legislation and of constitutional reform in
which the Convention found special cause for party congratula-
tion. The principles enunciated in the platform adopted will
be recognized by you as the same which have so long governed
and controlled your political conduct. The pledges made by
the party find guarantee of performance in the fidelity with
694 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
which you have heretofore discharged every trust confided to
your keeping.
In your election the people of this country will furnish new
proof of the excellency of our institutions. Without wealth,
without help from others, without any resources except those of
heart, conscience, intellect, energy, and courage, you have won
a high place in the world's history, and secured the confidence
and affections of your countrymen. Being one of the people,
your sympathies are with the people. In civil life your chief
care has been to better their condition, to secure their rights,
and to perpetuate our liberties. When the Government was
threatened with armed treason you entered its service as a pri-
vate, became a commander of armies, and are now the idol of
the citizen soldiers of the Republic. Such, in the judgment of
your party, is the candidate it has selected, and in behalf of that
party we ask you to accept this nomination.
To this General Logan responded as follows :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee : I re-
ceive your visit with pleasure and accept with gratitude the sen-
timents you have so generously expressed in the discharge of the
duty with which you have been entrusted by the National Con-
vention. Intending to address you a formal communication
shortly, in accordance with the recognized usage, it would be out
of place to detain you at this time with remarks which properly
belong to the official utterances of my letter of acceptance. I
may be permitted to say, however, that though I did not seek
the nomination for Vice-President I accept it as a trust reposed
in me by the Eepublican party, to the advancement of whose
broad policy on all questions connected with the progress of our
Government and our people I have dedicated my best energies,
and with this acceptance I may properly signify my approval of
the platform and principles adopted by the Convention. I am
deeply sensible of the honor conferred on me by my friends
in so unanimous a manner tendering me this nomination, and I
sincerely thank them for this tribute. I am not unmindful of
the great responsibility attaching to the office, and if elected I
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 695
shall enter upon the performance of its duties with a firm con-
viction that he who has such unanimous support of his party
friends, as the circumstances connected with the nomination and
your own words, Mr. Chairman, indicate, and consequently with
such a wealth of counsel to draw upon, cannot fail in the proper
way to discharge the duties devolving upon him. I tender you
my thanks for the kind expressions you have made, and I offer
you and your fellow-committee-men my most hearty thanks.
In due time General Logan's formal letter of acceptance
appeared. It has been widely and favorably commented
upon, and will speak for itself. It is as follows :
Washington, July 19, 1884,
Dear Sir : Having received from you on the 24th of June the
official notification of my nomination by the National Eepublican
Convention as the Eepubhcan candidate for Vice-President of the
United States, and considering it to be the duty of every man
devoting himself to the public service to assume any position to
which he may be called by the voice of his countrymen, I accept
the nomination with a grateful heart and deep sense of its respon-
sibilities, and if elected shall endeavor to discharge the duties of
the office to the best of my ability.
This honor, as is well understood, was wholly unsought by me.
That it was tendered by the representatives of a party, in a man-
ner so flattering, will serve to lighten whatever labors I may be
called upon to perform.
Although the variety of subjects covered in the very excellent
and vigorous declaration of principles adopted by the late Con-
vention prohibits, upon an occasion calling for brevity of expres-
sion, that full elaboration of which they are susceptible, I avail
myself of party usage to signify my approval of the various reso-
lutions of the platform, and to discuss them briefly.
PROTECTION TO AMERICAN" LABOR.
The resolution of the platform declaring for a levy of such
696 BIOGEAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
duties ^* as to afford security to our diversified industries and pro-
tection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that
active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just
reward, and the laboring man his full share in the National pros-
perity," meets my hearty approval.
If there be a Nation on the face of the earth which might, if it-
were a desirable thing, build a wall upon its every boundary line,,
deny communion to all the world, and proceed to live upon its;
own resources and productions, that Nation is the United States..
There is hardly a legitimate necessity of civilized communities
which cannot be produced from the extraordinary resources of our
several States and Territories, with their manufactories, mines,
farms, timber lands, and water-ways. This circumstance, taken
in connection with the fact that our form of government is
entirely unique among the Nations of the world, makes it utterly
absurd to institute comparisons between our own economic sys-
tems and those of other governments, and especially to attempt
to borrow systems from them. We stand alone in our circum-
stances, our forces, our possibilities, and our aspirations. In all
successful government it is a prime requisite that capital and
labor should be upon the best terms, and that both should enjoy
the highest attainable prosperity. If there be a disturbance of
that just balance between them, one or the other suffers, and dis-
satisfaction follows which is harmful to both.
The lessons furnished by the comparatively short history of
our National life have been too much overlooked by our people.
The fundamental article in the old Democratic creed proclaimed
almost absolute free trade, and this, too, no more than a quarter
of a century ago. The low condition of our National credit, the
financial and business uncertainties and general lack of prosperity
under that system, can be remembered by every man now in
middle life.
Although in the great number of reforms instituted by the
Eepublican party sufficient credit has not been publicly awarded
to that of tariff reform, its benefits have, nevertheless, been felt
throughout the land. The principle underlying this measure has
been in process of gradual development by the Republican party
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 697
during the comparatively brief period of its power, and to-day a
portion of its antiquated Democratic opponents make unwilling
concession to the correctness of the doctrine of an equitably
adjusted protective tariff, by following slowly in Its footsteps,
though a very long way in the rear. The principle involved is
one of no great obscurity, and can be readily comprehended by
any intelligent person calmly reflecting upon it. The political
and social systems of some of our trade-competing nations have
created working classes miserable in the extreme. They receive
the merest stipend for their daily toil, and, in the great expense
of the necessities of life, are deprived of those comforts of clothing,
housing, and health-producing food, with which wholesome
mental and social recreation can alone make existence happy and
desirable. Now, if the products of those countries are to be
placed in our markets, alongside of American products, either
the American capitalist must suffer in his legitimate profits, or
he must make the American laborer suffer in the attempt to com-
pete with the species of labor above referred to. In the case of a
substantial reduction of pay there can be no compensating ad-
vantages for the American laborer, because the articles of daily
consumption which he uses — with the exception of articles not
produced in the United States and easy of being specially pro-
vided for, as coffee and tea — are grown in our own country, and
would not be affected in price by a lowering of duties. There-
fore, while he would receive less for his labor, his cost of living
would not be decreased. Being practically placed upon the pay
of the European laborer, our own would be deprived of facilities
for educating and sustaining his family respectably ; he would
be shorn of the proper opportunities of self-improvement, and his
value as a citizen, charged with a portion of the obligations of
government, would be lessened, the moral tone of the laboring
class would suffer, and in them the interests of capital and the
well-being of orderly citizens in general would be menaced, while
one evil would react upon another until there would be a general
disturbance of the whole community. The true problem of a
good and stable government is, how to infuse prosperity among
all classes of people — the manufacturer, the farmer, the mechanic,
698 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
and the laborer alike. Such prosperity is a preventive of crime,
a security for capital, and the very best guarantee of general
peace and happiness.
The obvious policy of our Government is to protect both cap-
ital and labor by a proper imposition of duties. This protection
should extend to every article of American production which
goes to build up the general prosperity of our people.
The National Convention, in view of the special dangers men-
acing the wool interest of the United States, deemed it wise to
adopt a separate resolution on the subject of its proper protection.
This industry is a very large and important one. The necessary
legislation to sustain this industry upon a prosperous basis should
be extended.
None realizes more fully than myself the great delicacy and
difficulty of adjusting a tariff so nicely and equitably as to pro-
tect every industry, sustain every class of American labor, pro-
mote to the highest position great agricultural interests, and at
the same time to give to one and all the advantages pertaining to
foreign productions not in competition with our own, thus not
only building up foreign commerce, but taking measures to carry
it in our own bottoms.
Difficult as this work appears, and really is, it is susceptible of
accomplishment by patient and intelligent labor, and to no hands
can it be committed with as great assurance of success as to those
of the Republican party.
AN UNEQUALED MONETARY SYSTEM.
The Republican party is the indisputable author of a financial
and monetary system which it is safe to say has never before been
equaled by that of any other nation.
Under the operation of our system of finance the country was
safely carried through an extended and expensive war, with a
national credit which has risen higher and higher with each
succeeding year, until now the credit of the United States is
surpassed by that of no other nation, while its securities, at a
constantly increasing premium, are eagerly sought after by in-
vestors in all parts of the world.
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 699
Our system of currency is most admirable in construction.
While all the conveniences of a -bill circulation attach to it, every
dollar of paper represents a dollar of the world's money standards,
and as long as the just and wise policy of the Kepublican party
is continued there can be no impairment of the national credit.
Therefore under present laws relating thereto, it will be impos-
sible for any man to lose a penny in the bonds or bills of the
United States, or in the bills of the national banks.
The advantage of having a bank-note in the house which will
be as good in the morning as it was the night before, should be
appreciated by all. The convertibility of the currency should be
maintained intact, and the establishment of an international
standard among all commercial nations, fixing the relative values
of gold and silver coinage, would be a measure of pecuhar advan-
tage.
INTER-STATE, FOREIGN COMMERCE, AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.
The subjects embraced in the resolutions respectively looking
to the promotion of our inter-State and foreign commerce and the
matter of our foreign relations, are fraught with the greatest
importance to our people.
In respect to inter-State commerce there is much to be desired
in the way of equitable rates and facilities of transportation, that
•commerce may flow freely between the States themselves, diver-
sity of industries and employments be promoted in all sections of
our country, and that the great granaries and manufacturing
establishments of the interior may be enabled to send their pro-
ducts to the seaboard for shipment to foreign countries, relieved
of vexatious restrictions and discriminations in matters of which
it may emphatically be said " time is money," and also of unjust
charges upon articles destined to meet close competition from the
products of other parts of the world.
As to our foreign commerce, the enormous growth of our indus-
tries, and our surprising production of cereals and other neces-
saries of life, imperatively require that immediate and effective
means be taken, through peaceful, orderly, and conservative
methods to open markets which have been and are now monopo-
700 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
lized largely by other nations. This more particularly relates to
our sister republics of Spanish America, as also to our friends
the people of the Brazilian Empire. The republics of Spanish
America are allied to us by the very closest and warmest feelings,
based upon similarity of institutions and government, common
aspirations, and mutual hopes. The " Great Eepublic," as they
proudly term the United States, is looked upon by their people
with affection and admiration, and as the model for them to
build upon, and we should cultivate between them and ourselves
closer commercial relations, which will bind all together by the
ties of friendly intercourse and mutual advantage. Further than
this, being small commonwealths, in the military and naval sense
of the European powers, they look to us as, at least, a moral de-
fender against a system of territorial and other encroachments
which, aggressive in the past, have not been abandoned at this
day. Diplomacy and intrigue have done much more to wrest
the commerce of Spanish America from the United States than
has legitimate commercial competition.
Politically we should be bound to the republics of our conti-
nent by the closest ties, and communication by ships and railroads
should be encouraged to the fullest possible extent consistent with
a wise and conservative public policy. Above all, we should be
upon such terms of frieudship as to preclude the possibihty of
national misunderstandings between ourselves and any of the
members of the American republican family. The best method
to promote uninterrupted peace between one and all would lie in
the meeting of a general conference or congress, whereby an
agreement to submit all international differences to the peaceful
decisions. of friendly arbitration might be reached. An agree-
ment of this kind would give to our sister republics confidence
in each other and in us, closer communication would at once
ensue, and reciprocally advantageous commercial treaties might
be made, whereby much of the commerce which now flows across
the Atlantic would seek its legitimate channels, and inure to the
greater prosperity of all the American commonwealths. The full
advantages of a policy of this nature can not be stated in a
brief discussion like the present.
LOGAN ON THE PKESIDENTIAL TICKET. 701
FOREIGN POLITICAL RELATIONS.
The United States has grown to be a Government representing
more than 50,000,000 people, and in every sense, excepting that
of mere naval power, is one of the first nations of the world. As
such, its citizenship should be valuable, entithng its possessor to
protection in every quarter of the globe. I do not consider it
necessary that our Government should construct enormous fleets
of approved iron-clads, and maintain a commensurate body of
seamen, in order to place ourselves on a war-footing with the
military and naval powers of Europe. Such a course would not
be compatible with the peaceful policy of our country, though it
seems absurd that we have not the effective means to repel a
wanton invasion of our coast, and give protection to our coast
towns and cities against any power. The great moral force of
our country is so universally recognized as to render an appeal
to arms by us, either in protection of our citizens abroad or in
recognition of any just international right, quite improbable.
What we most need in this direction is a firm and vigorous asser-
tion of every right and privilege belonging to our Government or
its citizens, as well as an equally firm assertion of the rights and
privileges belonging to the general family of American Eepublics
situated upon this continent, when opposed, if they ever should be,
by the different systems of governments upon another continent.
An appeal to the right, by such a Government as ours, could
not be disregarded by any civilized nation.
In the Treaty of Washington we led the world to the means
of escape from the horrors of war, and it is to be hoped that the
era when all international differences shall be decided by peaceful
arbitration is not far off.
EQUAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP.
The central idea of a republican form of Government is the
rule of the whole people, as opposed to the other forms which
rest upon a privileged class.
Our forefathers, in the attempt to erect a new Government
which might represent the advanced thought of the world at that
period, upon the subject of governmental reform, adopted the
70^ BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAif.
idea of the people's sovereignty, and thus laid the basis of our
present Kepublic. While technically a government of the people,
it was in strictness only a government of a portion of the people,
excluding from all participation a certain other portion held in a
condition of absolutely despotic and hopeless servitude, the
parallel to which fortunately does not now exist in any modern
Christian nation.
With the culmination, however, of another cycle of advanced
thought, the American Republic suddenly assumed the full
character of a government of the whole people, and four million
human creatures emerged from the condition of bondsmen to
the full status of freemen, theoretically invested with the same
social and political rights possessed by their former masters.
The subsequent legislation which guaranteed by every legal title
the citizenship, and full equality before the law in all respects,
of this previously disfranchised people, amply covers the require-
ments, and secures to them, so far as legislation can, the privi-
leges of American citizenship. But the disagreeable fact of the
case is, that while, theoretically, we are in the enjoyment of a.
government of the whole people, practically we are almost as far
from it as we were in the ante-bellum days of the Republic.
There are but a few leading and indisputable facts which cover
the whole statement of the case. In many of the Southern States
the colored population is in large excess of the white. The colored
people are Republicans, as is also a considerable portion of the white
people. The remaining portion of the latter are Democrats. In
the face of this incontestable truth, these States invariably return
Democratic majorities. In other States of the South, the
colored people, although not a majority, form a very considerable
body of the population, and with the white Republicans are
numerically in excess of the Democrats, yet precisely the same
political result obtains — ^the Democratic party invariably carrying
the elections. It is not even thought advisable to allow an occa-
sional or unimportant election to be carried by the Republicans
as a " blind," or as a stroke o^ finesse.
Careful and impartial investigation has shown these results to
follow the systematic exercise of physical intimidation and vio-
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 703
lence, conjoined with the most shameful devices ever practiced in
the name of free elections. So confirmed has this result become,
that we are brought face to face with the extraordinary political
fact, that the Democratic party of the South relies almost entirely
upon the methods stated for its success in National elections.
This unlawful perversion of the popular franchise, which I
desire to state dispassionately and in a manner comporting with
the proper dignity of the occasion, is one of deep gravity to the
American people in a double sense.
First. It is a violation, open, direct, and flagrant, of the primary
principle upon which our Government is supposed to rest, viz., that
the control of the Government is participated in by all legally
qualified citizens, in accordance with the plan of popular govern-
ment that majorities must rule in the decision of all questions.
Second. It is in violation of the rights and interests of the
States wherein are particularly centered the great wealth and in-
dustries of the Nation, and which pay an overwhelming portion
of the National taxes. The immense aggregation of interests
embraced within, and the enormously greater population of,
these other States of the Union, are subjected every four years to
the dangers of- a wholly fraudulent show of numerical strength.
Under this system, minorities actually attempt to direct the
course of National affairs, and though, up to this time, success
has not attended their efforts to elect a President, yet success has
been so perilously imminent as to encourage a repetition of the
effort at each quadrennial election, and to subject the interests
of an overwhelming majority of our people. North and South, to
the hazards of illegal subversion.
The stereotyped argument in refutation of these plain truths
is, that if the Eepublicau element was really in the majority, they
could not be deprived of their rights and privileges by a minority,
but neither statistics of population nor the unavoidable logic
of the situation can be overridden or escaped. The colored
people have recently emerged from the bondage of their present
political oppressors ; they had had but few of the advantages of
education which might enable them to compete with the whites.
As I have heretofore mentioned, in order to a,chieve the ideal
704 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
of perfection of a popular government, it is absolutely necessary
that the masses should be educated. This proposition applies
itself with full force to the colored people of the South. They
must have better educational advantages, and thus be enabled to
become the intellectual peers of their white brethren, as many of
them undoubtedly already are. A liberal school system should
be provided for the rising generation of the South, and the colored
people be made as capable of exercising the duties of electors as
the white people. In the meantime it is the duty of the Na-
tional Government to go beyond resolutions and declarations on
the subject, and to take such action as may lie in its power to
secure the absolute freedom of National elections everywhere, to
the end that our Congress may cease to contain members repre-
senting fictitious majorities of their people, — thus misdirecting
the popular will concerning National legislation, — and especially
to the end that in Presidential contests the great business and
other interests of the country may not be placed in fear and
trembling lest an unscrupulous minority should succeed in stifling
the wishes of the majority.
In accordance with the spirit of the last resolution of the
Chicago platform, measures should be taken at once to remedy
this great evil.
FOREIGN IMMIGRATION.
Under our liberal institutions the subjects and citizens of every
nation have been welcomed to a home in our midst, and, on com-
pliance with our laws, to a co-operation in our Government.
While it is the policy of the Eepublican party to encourage the
oppressed of other nations and offer them facilities for becoming
useful and intelligent citizens in the legal definition of the term,
the party has never contemplated the admission of a class of ser-
vile people who are not only unable to comprehend our institu-
tions, but indisposed to become a part of our National family or
to embrace any higher civilization than their own. To admit
such immigrants would be only to throw a retarding element into
the very path of our progress. Our legislation should be amply
protective against this danger, and if not sufficiently so now,
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 705
should be made so to the full extent allowed by our treaties with
friendly powers.
THE CIVIL SERVICE.
The subject of civil-service administration is a problem that
has occupied the earnest thought of statesmen for a number of
years past, and the record will show that toward its solution many
results of a valuable and comprehensive character have been
attained by the Kepublican party since its accession to power.
In the partisan warfare made upon the latter with the view of
weakening it in the pubhc confidence, a great deal has been alleged
in connection with the abuse of the civil service, the party making
the indiscriminate charges seeming to have entirely forgotten
that it was under the full sway of the Democratic organization
that the motto " to the victors belong the spoils" became a car-
dinal article in the Democratic creed.
With the determination to elevate our Governmental admin-
istration to a standard of justice, excellence, and public morality,
the Eepublican party has sedulously endeavored to lay the foun-
dation of a system which shall reach the highest perfection under
the plastic hand of time and accumulating experience. The
problem is one of far greater intricacy than appears upon its
superficial consideration, and embraces the sub-questions of how
to avoid the abuses possible to the lodgment of an immense num-
ber of appointments in the hands of the Executive ; of how to
give encouragement to and provoke emulation in the various
Government employees, in order that they may strive for pro-
ficiency and rest their hopes of advancement upon the attributes
of official merit, good conduct, and exemplary honesty ; and how
best to avoid the evils of creating a privileged class in the Govern-
ment service, who, in imitation of European prototypes, may
gradually lose all proficiency and value in the belief that they
possess a life-calling, only to be taken away in case of some fla-
grant abuse.
The thinking, earnest men of the Republican party have made
no mere wordy demonstration upon this subject, but they have
endeavored to quietly perform' that which their opponents are
constantly promising without performing. Under Republican
706 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOQA.N.
rule the result has beau that, without engrafting any of the ob-
jectionable features of the European systems upon our own, there
has been a steady and even rapid elevation of the civil service in
all of its departments, until it can now be slated, without fear of
successful contradiction, that the service is more just, more effi-
cient, and purer in all of its features than ever before since the
establishment of our Government ; and if defects still exist in
our system, the country can safely rely upon the Eepublican
party as the most efficient instrument for their removal.
I am in favor of the highest standard of excellence in the ad-
ministration of the civil service, and will lend my best efforts to
the accomplishment of the greatest attainable perfection in this
branch of our service.
THE EEMAINING TWIN EELIC OF BARBAEISM.
The Eepublican party came into existence in a crusade against
the Democratic institutions of slavery and polygamy. The first
of these has been buried beneath the embers of civil war. The
party should continue its efEorts until the remaining iniquity
shall disappear from our civiHzation under the force of faithfully
executed laws.
There are other subjects of importance which I would gladly
touch upon did space permit. I limit myself to saying that
while there should be the most rigid economy of Governmental
administration, there should be no self-defeating parsimony
either in our doniestic or foreign service. Official dishonesty
should be promptly and relentlessly punished. Our obligations
to the defenders of our country should never be forgotten, and
the liberal system of pensions provided by the Eepublican party
should not be imperiled by adverse legislation. The law estab-
lishing a Labor Bureau, through which the interests of labor can
be placed in an organized condition, I regard as a salutary meas-
ure. The eight-hour law should be enforced as rigidly as any
other. We should increase our navy to a degree enabling us to
amply protect our coast lines, our commerce, and to give us a
force in foreign waters which shall be a respectable and proper
representative of a country like our own. The public lands
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 707
belong to the people, and should not be alienated from them ;
but reserved for free homes for all desiring to possess them ;
and, finally, our present Indian policy should be continued and
improved upon as our experience in its administration may from
time to time suggest. I have the honor to subscribe myself, sir,
your obedient servant, John A. Logan.
To the Hon, John B. Henderson,
Gliairman of the Committee.
Since his nomination General Logan has traveled across the
continent from the headwaters of the Mississippi to Maine, andl
the popular demonstrations wherever he has appeared have-
shown that the enthusiasm with which the announcement of"
his selection! for Vice-President was received was not a mere ^
temporary ebullition. Soon after the Convention he made a visit -
to Maine, attending various gatherings in company with his •
colleague on the ticket, responding happily on each occasion, ,
at Augusta, Bangor, and other places, enhancing the high'
estimation in which he was previously held by the citizens of*
the Pine Tree State. Later, he attended the annual reuniom
of the Grrand Army of the Eepublic at Minneapolis, Minm •
His journey through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the Westerni
States was a continuous ovation. At Pittsburg, Alliance, ,
Canton, Massillon, Wooster, and other towns on the road, .
men, women and children clambered into the train to shake
the General's hand, while vast crowds upon the outside kept
up a continual cheering and waving of handkerchiefs. In
Minnesota he was received with an enthusiasm which knew
no bounds at the hands of the people, and 60,000 veterans of
the war assembled at the encampment.
After his return to the East he visited New York City, in
August, stopping at tbe Fifth Avenue Hotel, The chief
clerk at this famous houfie remarked to the writer during
General Logan's visit that- ke- had. entertained- Presidents^
708 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
foreign princes, queens of the Opera, and stars of the literary
and histrionic worlds by the score, but he had never known a
'guest to whom one-half the cards had been sent that were
carried to General Logan. He declared that there was a con-
tinuous reception at the General's rooms from the time he
arrived until his departure. Another thing he remarked
was, that a card was never sent up to which the General did
not respond : " Show him up."
Leaving New York City, he passed through central New
York, visiting at the home of Senator Warner Miller, and
going on to the Chautauqua assembly, where he was presented
to an audience of 10,000 people in the amphitheater, and
spoke as follows :
Ladies and Gentlemen : There is certainly enough in this
audience to inspire any one who is capable of addressing you in
an appropriate and proper manner. In that I certainly would
fail were I to attempt it. In man's economy there are wastes,
and the waste of time is one of them. Some years ago men of
sufficient breadth, judgment, and views were found to provide
for that waste in an appropriate and efficient way in the organ-
ization of this assembly, so that the time of rest, the time which
might pass away without benefit should be used to advantage, and
here, now, on this beautiful spot of ground, near this lovely lake
of Chautauqua, amidst the tall elms and wide-spreading beeches,
we find the assembled thousands meeting to enjoy a great moral
and intellectual feast, the influences of which ramify through
every portion of this Republic. Here you have lectures on the
arts, the sciences, literature, philosophy, and religion, sending
out their influence like the little rivulets that flow out from here
to form the broad ocean of moral sentiment that surrounds this
great people, the great benefits, extent, and power of which I am
not competent to express.
In all governments and countries, in the exercise of authority,
in the making of laws, in the execution of the same, there ought
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET. 709
to go along, hand in hand with them, that moral sentiment
which will make our Nation finer and gentler in dealing with
our fellow-men. [Applause.] I came to this place this evening
after many promises to myself that I should visit and see the
good people that assemble here. I am glad that I have made the
visit, and thank you for your kindly greeting. I shall go away
with remembrances that shall last long. When I return to my
home I shall remember the lesson that this visit has taught rae ;
that is, that there are no periods of leisure belonging to man
that may not be utilized for his benefit.
Continuing on his journey home to Chicago, he was greeted
with the same manifestations of popular favor at Buffalo and
other places along the route.
General Logan's arrival in Chicago, August 23, was marked
by a demonstration of great magnitude. He reached the
Twenty-second Street depot at 9 o'clock at night, and found
awaiting him an immense throng of enthusiastic people, whose
cheers were blended with the refrain of " Hail to the Chief,"
from various military bands. There were fifteen thousand
men in line with torches, and after the distinguished Senator
had been placed in a carriage by the citizens' reception com-
mittee, the procession took up its line of march northward to
the Lake Front park, where he addressed an audience of thou-
sands of people upon the issues of the campaign. He held the
crowd for nearly two hours, being interrupted repeatedly by
tumultuous expressions of approval. He said :
Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens of Illinois: I am
somewhat travel-worn by my circuitous route from the cherished
capital of the Nation to my native State and my beloved home.
The love for home association is deeply imbedded in our hearts.
It was on this, my native soil, that my boyish pride was encour-
aged up to the ordinary ambitions of manhood, and if I have or
can serve my constituency fairly and well in the advancement of
710 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
their interests, my fondest aspirations and hopes will have ripened
into a most cherished reahty. My heart beats in harmony with
yours in all that pertains to our common humanity and to our
common citizenship. I made a vow when I first entered public
life to devote all my energies to the interests of our whole people,
and to look for my reward in the consciousness that I had kept
the faith. I shall ever remember this great evidence of respect
with a heart overflowing with gratitude. I return to you, my
friends and fellow-citizens, my thanks for this grand demonstra-
tion, and as it means much more than a mere personal compli-
ment to myself, being a recognition of the great principles which
I have been chosen, in connection with one of our greatest and
most brilliant American statesman, in part to represent, I deem
it proper at this time to examine some of the questions that
divide the great parties of this country.
The Democratic party controlled this Government, with only
a few intervals, from 1837 to 1861, and during those twenty-four
years there was only one important measure enacted in accord
with its financial pohcy now remaining upon the statute books —
viz., the independent treasury system. Its financial policies in
all other respects have failed, and have been abandoned by the:
country. The doctrine of State sovereignty, by which the.
Nation was to be subordinated to the individual States, is now
repudiated by the people. Under this doctrine the Southern half'
of the Democracy entered into a gigantic rebellion against the
Government. While the majority of the Democrats of the North
were loyal to the Government, a great many of their organizations
sympathized with the South. In 1860, when the Democrats lost
control of the Government, they left it financially wrecked. The
people were disheartened, and the country was almost in ruins.
Their financial ideas and tariff policy had brought the Nation to
its lowest level, without credit and almost without hope in the
future. If we may Judge them by their record up to that time,
there is no ground for the belief that they could now so manage
the affairs of the Eepublic ^s to meet th^ presQOt demands of
the people. * * *
LOGAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET". Til
' General Logan then proceeded to discuss the financial policy
established by the Eepublican party, under which, he claimed,
the evils heretofore experienced under the Democratic system
had disappeared. The perpetuation of the system should be
left in the hands of its friends rather than committed to its
enemies. In periods of depression, he declared, the Demo-
cratic party was always ready to recklessly seize hold of almost
any quack system for the payment of the public debt, and for
the temporary relief of the country, although its adoption
could only work permanent disaster. Speaking of the tariiF,
he said the history of the Democratic party showed that on the
subject of protection, its course would be extremely dangerous if
it ever obtained the power. The theory of the Democratic party
that the market price of the products of this country should
be governed' by the cost of like products in the mother coun-
tries would, if allowed to be consummated, bring the manufac-
turing of the country to an end. He then reviewed what he
termed the Eepublican American protective system, and
claimed that it had fostered the wealth of the nation until
now the aggregate of all the property had reached the sum of
forty-four billions of dollars, an increase of thirty billions in
twenty years of Republican administration; whether this was
to be attributed to the Republican policy or not, it was evi-
dent the country had never enjoyed such great prosperity or
advanced in all things pertaining to the highest civilization,
as it had since the Republicans came into power, and adopted
its American policy. The free trade theory he described as
the Democratic-English policy. He claimed that the com-
merce of the country under the management of the Govern-
ment by the Republican party had caused our exports to
increase to more than twelve billion dollars, all of which had
been produced by American labor.
712 BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
He closed with the following peroration :
To whose hands, then, will you intrust all these responsibili-
ties ? To the hands of those who have hitherto believed in these
principles and purposes, and who still stand by them, or to the
hands of those who have hitherto failed to preserve and at this
time almost utterly disregard them ? Whether you will hand
them over to those who, when hitherto tried, miserably failed
you ; to those untried in dealing with the momentous issues now
before the country, or whether you will not rather intrust them
to those in whose keeping they have ever been safe, are important
questions for you now to determine.
If the people of this country want a man to guide this Nation
in the direction of peace, prosperity, and happiness ; if they want
the man who has been faithful to his country in the time of its
trials ; the man who stood by it loyally through all its misfortunes
and adversities ; the man who has grown in wisdom drawn from
a vast experience ; the man who is known in diplomacy and state-
craft wherever our flag floats or the name of our country is men-
tioned ; the man with great strength of intellect, with indomita-
ble will, and the courage of his convictions ; the man of generous
heart as well as brilliant intellect ; the man in whose hands every
American interest will be absolutely safe and undeniably secure ;
this man, my fellow-citizens, the people will find in the nominee
of the Eepublican party for President of the United States — the
Hon. James' G. Blaine.
Before he completed his address the audience became so
great that General Oglesby, Governor Hamilton, Senator Cul-
lom, Clark E. Carr, and other distinguished citizens of Illinois
spoke to portions of the crowd on the outskirts, which General
Logan's voice was unable to reach, so vast was the assemblage.
We have thus traced the career of this remarkable man
from boyhood to the position he has won by his own en-
deavors, aided only by the generous gifts of Nature, and leave
him in the fullness of his achievements in the past, and with
the bright promise of his bountiful future.
TJ
©HE BlOGF^APHY
OP
AMES A, GARFIELD
OUR MARTYRED PRESIDENT,
BY
BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D.
THE HISTORIAN AND BIOGRAPHER.
Never in the historj^ of this country, never in the history of the world, has there oc-
cured an event, in all its scope, to parallel the fact we have announced. The sorrow is
universal. North Carolina Presbyterian.
By his sufferings and death, no less than by faithful, fearless discharge of official duty
during his brief tenure of the sceptre, he has perfected the union which President
Lincoln suffered for and died to preserve. Baltimore Presbyterian.
LoTED by the whole people of his own country, and esteemed and honored by the
civilized world, he will be cherished in the memories of the people as one of the noblest
men ever granted to the public life of any nation. Christian Advocate.
No abler, truer man, no man of loftier instincts or higher culture, has ever gone to
that office. His life has been an example to the patriotic youth of his country.
Independent.
He was a man of the people, sprung from the ranks of the homespun farmers and
mechanics, yet in culture the peer of the statesmen and scholars of the world.
Examiner and Chronicle.
He will now always remain one of the saints of American story, without a stain on
the whiteness of his garments, one of the few Presidents who have left the White House
amid universal reverence and regret. Nation.
The thought which will come sooner or later to all, and when it comes will abide, is,
that after all character is the main thing, the most precious possession, the surest power,
the noblest legacy, the most enduring fame. Boston Advertiser.
He was not a mere political servant ; he was not afraid to speak and to vote in oppo-
sition to his own party, under conviction of duty and right. Presbyterian Banner.
Never did the voice of the people summon to the Presidency a man in whom the re-
ligious people of this country had higher confidence and hope. Presbyterian.
Emperors and kings, senates and ministers, are in spirit his pall-bearers ; but their
peoples, from the highest to the lowest, claim to be equally visible and audible as
sorrowing assistants. London Times.
Our prayer " God save the President I" has been answered. He has saved him in a
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The late President was a brave general and helped to win victories on the battle-fields,
but in his suffering and death is a greater conquerer than if he had subdued the armies
of the world. Christian Statesman.
In the hour of her sorrow the great cosmopolitan Republic commands more sympathy
beyond its border than the proudest historic monarch of Continental Europe could com-
mand over its subjects. London Echo.
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